Poverty continues to rise in Champaign County
New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the poverty level in Champaign County continues to rise.
The bureau's 2011 American Community Survey results came out on Thursday. The figures show that 24.9 percent of people in Champaign County - roughly one in four people - are living in poverty. That number is up from 21.3 percent in 2010.
Increases like that put a strain on local social service groups, like the United Way of Champaign County. Sue Grey is that group's Vice President for Community Impact.
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Grey also said that despite the rising poverty numbers, the United Way is able to continue serving the public, in part, she says, because Champaign County residents and businesses have been very generous in recent years in donating to the group's fundraising campaign.
The census figures out Thursday also show that around 11 percent of families are living in poverty in Champaign County. That figure is also up from 2010, when it checked in at 8.5 percent.
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Actually if you follow the link to "Related Content" and look at the data, you will see that the poverty rate change for Families is NOT statistically significant. Only those marked with an asterisk in the "statistically significant" field are.
The ACS 1-year data, from which these estimates are derived, is a sampling of about 1500 households in Champaign County and has a margin of error for these poverty stats of approximately 2.5%, so the rate for all people is 22.4% - 27.4% for 2011.
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