Poverty Rate Rises To 12.7 Percent

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The nation’s poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. Connecticut also experienced a slight increase, mirroring the national trend, but had one of the lowest rates in the nation.

Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty, up 1.1 million people from 2003.

Asians were the only ethnic group to show a decline in poverty, from 11.8 percent in 2003 to 9.8 percent last year. The poverty rate among the elderly declined as well, from 10.2 percent in 2003 to 9.8 percent last year.

The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold — 11.3 percent of the population. Since then, the poverty rate has increased steadily from 11.7 percent in 2001, when the economy slipped into recession, to 12.5 percent in 2003.

In Connecticut about 310,000 people or 9.1 percent of the population lived in poverty last year, up from about 8.2 percent the previous year. Only six states — New Hampshire, Minnesota, Delaware, Vermont, New Jersey, and Hawaii — had lower average poverty rates for last year.

Social service advocates in the state also point to other findings that show 11.6 percent of Connecticut residents and 8.5 percent of children under 18 were uninsured.

“In the nation’s wealthiest state, parents who are working full-time should have sufficient funds for decent housing, a good education, quality child care, and health care for their children,’’ said Doug Hall, associate director of research for Connecticut Voices For Children, a private, nonprofit research and advocacy group in New Haven. “Yet the thousands of Connecticut families holding jobs that pay poverty wages or that don’t offer health insurance benefits find that — no matter how hard they work — there’s not enough income to make ends meet.’’