According to the Associated Press, new studies show that 1 in 6 Americans were living in poverty in 2008. A revised formula that calculates the number of US citizens in poverty put last year’s total at 47.4 million people – 7 million more than the government had originally estimated.
See more details and statistics from the revised NAS formula here.
[source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/20/ap/politics/main5400558.shtml]