While the total percentage of people in poverty in Illinois has remained around 14.7% since 1960, there have been some notable improvements - the percentage of poor elderly people has decreased significantly from 29.8% to 8.8% over this time period. Poverty rates have also generally decreased among racial and ethnic groups except for Latinos. Additionally, the number of low income families and counties in Illinois has decreased substantially. Reasons for these improvements include minimum wage increases, rising living standards, and expanded access to medical care.
2. Improvements
Total percentage has remained constant.
14.7% in 1960 and 14.7% today.
Large reduction in poor elderly population.
29.8% in 1960 and 8.8% now.
Poverty has always and will always be a problem. Although it would be ignorant to assume that we could resolve the problem of poverty completely, we are taking steps to reduce it. Since 1960, we have made improvements and drastically decreased poverty in certain areas. Illinois’s poverty percentage has not gone down significantly, but we have fared better than other states, whose levels have gone up. While Illinois’s poverty level has stayed fairly constant at around 14.7%, we have made major strides in reducing elderly poverty. In 1960, the percent of people 65 and older that were living in poverty was an astonishing 29.8%. We have reduced that number to 8.8% using the many new medicare laws that were passed.
the poverty percentage by race and ethnicity has dropped since 1960, and this is a good sign. (Read statistics). The Latino population is the only one that has suffered in recent years with a 0.7% increase from 20.7 to 21.4%. With these drops, it seems that the only reason Illinois has kept the same poverty rate is because of the increase in population. Our population increased from 9,850,637 in 1960 to 12,573,676 as of 2012. More people means more possibility to live in poverty.
Although our population has increased, and the percent of people living in poverty has remained the same, the percent of families living on low income has drastically decreased from 28% to 17.6%. The middle class has also experienced improvement. In 1960 there were 68 counties in Illinois that had a poverty rate of 20% or higher. In 2012 that number plummeted to 10 counties.
There are many reasons why we are experience the reduced poverty in the areas that we are. Recently, raising the minimum wage has helped many people out from under the weight of poverty, and increasing it to a “living wage” would help even more. People are having increased standards of living and can afford better houses and more of the necessary things they need. There has also been a major increase in access to medical care, including Medicare, Medicaid, and free or reduced cost community health centers.
This report is the source I used for all of the statistics.
