HOPE and Poverty

Investing in our children will make a difference in their lives and Oklahoma's future. Businesses will relocate because our children will be educated and better workers. The investment will provide an overall better economy for all of us.

The investment in kids will help break the stranglehold of poverty for many Oklahomans. Here is the latest from the census bureau and remarks and information from the Oklahoma Policy Institute:

Oklahoma Poverty Profile: 2007

A new fact sheet from Oklahoma Policy Institute offers a series of concise numbers and graphs summarizing some of the major findings from the 2007 American Community Survey on poverty in Oklahoma. Among the key findings:

*Nearly one in six Oklahomans (15.9%) lived in poverty in 2007. This is a 1.1 percentage point decrease from 2006 but well above the poverty rate of 2000 (13.8%). Oklahoma's poverty rate is 2.6% percentage points higher than the national average.

*The poverty rate for children (22.1%) is higher than that of working-age adults (14.5%) or seniors (10.1%).

*A majority (62.8%) of Oklahomans in poverty are White;

*Within Oklahoma, Hispanics (29.0%), African-Americans (27.4%), and Native Americans (23.6%) have the highest rates of poverty.

Click here to read and download the 2-page fact sheet.