four with a yearly income of $21,954 or less
was considered poor by American standards (U.S. Census Bureau News, September 16, 2010);11.1 percent (8.8 million) of American families fell into this category. The number of people below the official poverty thresholds numbered 43.6 million people in poverty in 2009, a poverty rate of 14.3 percent. This rate was the highest since 1994, but was 8.1 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available.
Social benefits of the USA