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About 1.4 million Michigan residents lived below the federal poverty level in 2018, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.

A total of 14.1% of Michigan’s population was below the federal poverty level, according to 2018 data taken by the American Community Survey (ACS). The percentage for Michigan is down from 14.2% measured by the same survey in 2017. In comparison, 13.1% of the national population lives below that line.

Michigan’s child poverty rate stood at 19.4% for 2018, down from a rate of 19.7% taken in 2017. The 2018 figures also show about 13.6% of people ages 18 to 64 and 9% of people older than 64 lived below the poverty line.

Peter Ruark, senior policy analyst with the nonpartisan Michigan League for Public Policy (MLPP), said it’s “disgraceful that so many hard-working Michiganders and their families are below the poverty line. Our rate is almost unchanged from last year, and Detroit and Flint have some of the highest poverty rates in the nation for cities their size.

Read more in Michigan Advance

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