Newly released data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) show that Wisconsin’s overall poverty rate declined slightly from 10.8% in 2007 to 10.4% in 2007. The child poverty rate dropped from 14.4% in 2007 to 13.3% in 2008. However, these figures do not capture the bulk of the impact of the recession, as evidenced by dramatic 2009 increases in eligibility for a wide range of support services in Wisconsin, including FoodShare and free and reduced school lunch, as well as the number of families enrolled in BadgerCare Plus with incomes below the poverty line. Details about some of those trends are in our press release about the new census figures.

Overall, about 569,000 Wisconsin residents (including 172,000 children) lived in poverty in 2008. Wisconsin’s overall and child poverty rates remain substantially better than the national rates, but by less of a margin than in 2000 and earlier. Nationally, the 2008 overall poverty rate was 13.2%, and the child poverty rate was 18.2 percent; both are similar to the previous year’s figures. The federal poverty level for a family of four in 2008 was $21,200.