The poverty rate increased markedly over the past decade, in part a response to two economic recessions. A strong economy during most of the 1990s is generally credited with the declines in poverty that occurred over the latter half of that decade. The poverty rate increased each year from 2001 through 2004, a trend generally attributed to economic recession and failed to recede appreciably before the onset of the next recession. This book provides a progress report of poverty 50 years later as well as insight on the poverty levels of the United States in 2012.