May 21, 2013
ATLANTA (AP) — New Census data shows that Georgia's poverty rate was the third highest in the country in 2010, up two spots from last year, with more than 1.8 million residents counted among the poor.
The only states with higher poverty rates in 2010 were Louisiana and Mississippi. Nationally, 15.1 percent of Americans were living in poverty last year.
Georgia also ranked eighth in the nation in the number of uninsured residents, at a rate of 19.4 percent. Roughly 1.9 million Georgians did not have health insurance last year as the state joined a challenge to President Barack Obama's health care plan, meant in part to address rising numbers of people without health insurance.
Only Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas had higher rates of uninsured residents.
(Copyright 2011, The Associated Press)
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