Insights on Inequality in the Distribution of Poverty in the United States in the Last Decade (2011-22)

Rajabushan Jagadish Nayak, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning
Aniruddha Bhandari, SSSIHL
Ashish Singh, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

We add to the existing scholarship on Inequality of Poverty (IoP) in the US by estimating IoP during 2011-22 period and relating it to the disparity/inequality in factors, such as, unemployment-population ratio, unemployment-rate, loss of employment, duration of unemployment and median weekly earnings. Findings indicate that the poverty (11.5%) in the United States is substantial (but decreasing) – for all racial/ethnic groups, family types, natives as well as foreign born and in all regions. Also, IoP in the US is extensive, for example, in 2022, 17.1% of Blacks and 16.9% of Hispanics were poor, compared to only 8.6% of non-Hispanic Whites. Further, the IoP – based on family-type is extremely high; and, based on regions has increased during 2011-22. Moreover, there are huge gaps between Blacks and Whites in unemployment-population ratio, unemployment rate, loss of employment, average weeks of unemployment and the median weekly earnings with the Blacks at the receiving end.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Population and Development, Population Policies, Economic Demography

See paper.