New data shows poverty in Wisconsin has increased from 10.2 percent in 2005 to 13.2 percent in 2010. The Applied Population Lab at UW-Madison crunched the numbers from the American Community Survey (ACS) distributed to some households by the federal government.
Although the increase in poverty was higher in some Wisconsin counties than others, APL Assistant Researcher Rozaline Klaas says the uptick is part of an “overall trend.”
Senior citizens historically have been victims of poverty, but the data shows elderly poverty rates have dramatically declined since the 1970s, while child poverty rates have increased over the same period. Klass says the children are victims of the recession facing their parents.
Twenty-two Wisconsin counties reported increases in child poverty over the past decade. Most notably, Wood, Fond du Lac, Marathon, and Jefferson counties reported increases of at least 12 percentage points.
Wisconsin’s neighboring states are experiencing similar economic conditions.
