American Community Survey updates poverty statistics
Texas’ poverty rate improved to 17.2 percent in 2014, according to U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey released Sept. 17.
Embedded in that statistic is this: more than 4.5 million Texans — 1.7 million of whom are children — still live in poverty. In 2014, the poverty line for a family of three was about $19,000 per year.
Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research and advocacy organization, said the poverty rate for Texas children of 24.6 percent remained unchanged from the previous year.
“Although the state is growing, too many Texans struggle every day to make ends meet,” Jennifer Lee of the Center for Public Policy Priorities said. “High levels of child poverty continue to undermine our state economy and affect the future prosperity of our state,” she added.
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