Poverty and unemployment is increasing in Wisconsin, while income levels are dropping, according to recently released New American Community Survey data. ?The most recent estimates show a continued increase in poverty in Wisconsin since 2008,? says Katherine Curtis, demographic specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension and assistant professor of community and environmental sociology at the UW-Madison. ?Poverty in the state is the second highest since poverty data have been collected.? The highest was 15.7 percent in 1959, and the lowest state poverty rate was 8.7 percent in 1979 and again in 1999.
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