New American Community Survey (ACS) poverty data for 2010 released today by the US Census Bureau paint a painful picture of families paying the price for an economic recovery that has left far too many of them behind. The combined impact of high unemployment and declining wages has resulted in a national poverty rate of 15.1 percent (as determined by the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, released last week). Today’s state-level data release tells us that poverty rates range from 8.3 percent in New Hampshire to 22.4 percent in Mississippi.

And while overall poverty rates are alarming, child poverty rates tell the tale of a wealthy nation that seems content to leave a significant portion of its children behind. Nearly one in three children in Mississippi (32.5 percent), the District of Columbia (30.4 percent), and New Mexico (30.0 percent) lived in poverty in 2010, and in nearly half of the states, more than one in five children lived in poverty last year. Unless and until national and state policy makers work together to put Americans back to work and to aggressively redouble efforts to reduce poverty, we will continue to see poverty and child poverty rates that highlight persistent inequalities in this wealthy nation.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Table S1701 Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months.