U.S. Poverty Rates Higher, Safety Net Weaker Than in Peer Countries. Economic Policy Institute. Elise Gould and Hilary Wething. July 24, 2012.

Poverty rates in the United States increased over the 2000s, a trend exacerbated by the Great Recession and its aftermath. By 2010, just over 46 million people fell below the U.S. Census Bureau’s official poverty line. The report puts the U.S. experience with poverty in an international context, comparing the lower end of the wage and income distribution in the United States with that of “peer” countries, largely countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with roughly similar GDP per hour worked as the U.S. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

http://www.epi.org/files/2012/ib339-us-poverty-higher-safety-net-weaker.pdf [PDF format, 7 pages].