"According to the Census Bureau, nearly 37 million Americans - 12.6 percent of the population - were living in poverty in 2005. That means that four years into an economic expansion, the percentage of Americans defined as poor was higher than at the bottom of the last recession in late 2001, when it was 11.7 percent. But that's not the worst of it. Recently, the bureau released 12 alternative measures of poverty, and all but one are higher than the official rate."
-The New York Times-
Read more of "Counting the Poor".