The Census Bureau released its annual poverty report, concluding that nearly 35 million Americans, or 13 percent, are "living in poverty." In a similar annual ritual, Heritage Foundation research fellow Robert Rector has put the data into context.

Forty-one percent of the poor own their own homes, typically a three-bedroom house with one and a half baths, garage/carport, and porch/patio. The median value of this home is $65,000, which is 70 percent of the median value of all American homes. Only 2 percent live in overcrowded conditions (more than 1.5 persons per room), and each poor person has 440 square feet of living area on average—more than typical residents of London, Paris, and Berlin. About 70 percent of poor households own a car, and over a quarter own two or more. Two thirds own microwaves and have an air conditioner. Nearly half own two or more color televisions, and almost three quarters own VCRs.

When asked if they have enough to eat, 96 percent of all Americans answered "yes," 3 percent said they "sometimes" did not have enough to eat, and half a percent said they were "often" hungry. Similarly, 86 percent of the poor said their families were well fed, and 3 percent said they were often hungry. The surveys found that diets of the poor and middle class have almost the same nutritional balance, in most cases well above recommended norms. And while the growth of 39 percent of all African children and 47 percent of Asian children is stunted by malnutrition, only 2.7 poor American children fall below the normal height threshold, well within the realm of genetic variation. In fact, poor children suffer disproportionately from obesity, and the Women, Infants and Children food program, which encourages a high-calorie diet among those receiving assistance, recently released a report saying it was not responsible for this trend.

Rector notes that the Census Bureau's poverty statistics are often inflated because it fails to count as income almost all of the approximately $410 billion in annual welfare payments from federal and state governments. Also, the Bureau is almost certainly not counting income accurately in the first place. In 1996, the Commerce Department, which measures the gross domestic product, estimated Americans' personal income at $6.8 trillion. The Census Bureau, however, counted only $4.8 trillion in income, a discrepancy of $2 trillion.

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