VHFA News

By:
Leslie Black-Plumeau

According to researchers at the Brookings Institution, the poverty rate among all Americans is likely to remain above 14 percent through 2020, due to the relationship between unemployment and poverty.

The situation will be even worse among children, with the poverty rate remaining above 21 percent through 2020.

The worst year is likely to be 2014, with at least 16 percent of all Americans and 26 percent of all children living in poverty.

The researchers used three sets of national unemployment rate projections — from the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, a consulting arm of the Economist magazine — to identify a range of potential outcomes.

For more information, see the "An Update to "Simulating the Effect of the 'Great Recession' on Poverty" by Emily Monea and Isabel Sawhill (Sept. 16, 2010).