How much do you know about poverty?  Answer either "True" or False" for each statement. Then check your answers (below) and get a short explanation for each.

1. The number of people living in poverty has decreased since the end of the most recent recession six years ago.
2. In the United States, more women live in poverty than men.
3. Since its inception in 1946, the National School Lunch program has served over 200 billion lunches to school children in need.
4. According to the U.S. government, a family of four—two adults and two children—is living in poverty if it earns less than $35,000 annually.
5. Most people who are living in poverty are African American.
6. The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is a livable wage for a single parent with one child.
7. The poverty rate among the elderly in the United States is higher than that of any other age group.
8. If every person in the United States that is living in poverty lived in the same state, it would be the most populous state in the nation – the state of Poverty, USA.
9. One of every five children in America lives in poverty.
10.  For the most part, people living in poverty do not work.
11. In a three year period, almost one out of every three Americans spends an extended period of time in poverty.
12. Most of those who live in poverty would escape if they doubled their income.
13. Children of single mothers are more likely to experience poverty than the children of married-couple families.
14. The amount of people living in poverty without health insurance is increasing.

1. False. The number of people in poverty has increased from 44 million people in 2009 to 47 million people in 2014.
2. True. In America, 26 million women live in poverty while 21 million men live in poverty. And the gender disparity is not decreasing. In 2013 and 2014, 2.7% more women than men lived in poverty. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau
3. True. The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in over 100,000 schools and child care institutions. Children from low-income families are eligible for reduced-price meals. In 2012 and 2013 alone, more than 32 million children each day got their lunch through the National School Lunch Program. Source: USDS Food and Nutrition Services, 2014.
4. False. The federal “poverty threshold” in 2014 for a family of four with two children 17 or younger is about $24,000. However, social welfare researchers estimate that it takes an income that is about twice the official poverty level to achieve basic financial security. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau
5. False. Although the African American population has the largest percentage of people living in poverty, there are many more white Americans living below the poverty line. In 2014, about 20 million white Americans lived below the poverty line, compared to 11 million African Americans. In the same year, there were 13 million Hispanics (of any race) and 2 million Asian Americans living in poverty. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau
6. False. A single parent with one child working at this minimum wage full-time every week of the year ($7.25 x 40 hours x 52 weeks) would earn $15,080 before any deductions or taxes. This is $1,237 below the poverty threshold of $16,317. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau
7. False. Though the poverty rate for America's elderly (people over 65) rose from 9.5% in 2013 to 10% in 2014, the poverty rate for children under 18 is still higher, at 20% for 2014. The next highest poverty rate is for young adults aged 18-24, at 19% in 2014. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau
8. True. The current population of Poverty USA is larger than the populations of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Nebraska… combined. Source: People and Households, US Census Bureau
9. True. In 2014, 15.5 million children lived in poverty. Although children only make up 23% of the U.S. population, they disproportionally represent 33% of people living in poverty. Children in the U.S. also experience higher poverty rates when compared to other industrialized nations. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau
10. False. 10 million workers in the U.S. in 2014 lived below the poverty line. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau
11. True. Many Americans tread just above the poverty line every year, barely hanging on. Over the 36-month period between 2009 and 2011, 32% of the U.S. population lived in poverty for at least two consecutive months. Source: Dynamics of Economic Well-being: Poverty, 2009-2011. U.S. Census Bureau
12. False. 45% of those who live in poverty would still be in poverty even if they doubled their income. This kind of poverty is called deep poverty. In 2014, about 21 million people with families in the U.S. lived in deep poverty. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau
13. True. 55% of children under the age of 6 living in a family with a single mother lived in poverty in 2014. Source: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013, U.S. Census Bureau
14. False. The amount of people living in poverty without health insurance in 2014 decreased 4.3 percentage points from 2013. Source: Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2013, U.S. Census Bureau.