Census Bureau: Poverty Rate Rises To 14.4%

The Census Bureau reported a rise in the poverty rate to 14.3% in 2009, from 13.2% in 2008. This represents the highest poverty rate since 1994. According to last year's data, there were around 43.6 million people in poverty. Real median income for family households dropped 1.8%, and gained 1.6% for non-family households. In addition to this, the number of people having health insurance came down from 255.1 million in 2008, to 253.6 million in 2009. This represented the first instance of a decline in the number of insured people since 1987. The number of people without health insurance rose to 50.7 million last year, from 46.3 million in 2008. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.