About 11.7 percent of North Dakotans, or about 73,000 people, lived in poverty in 2009, according to a news release from NDSU Extension Service. This rate has remained steady for the past decade.
Poverty thresholds are updated annually by the U.S. Census Bureau and vary by family size. In 2009, the poverty threshold was $10,956 for one person and $21,756 for a family of four with two children younger than 18.
Certain populations in North Dakota continue to struggle with higher than average poverty rates, according to the release. Children have a greater likelihood of living in poverty than the general public. The percentage of North Dakota children younger than 17 living in poverty was estimated at 14.1 percent in 2009. Poverty rates also are higher in American Indian reservation areas, with Sioux, Benson and Rolette counties having more than one in four people living in poverty in 2009. Sioux County had the 20th highest poverty rate among all 3,143 counties in the nation.
Nationally, 14.3 percent of all people were impoverished in 2009.
