A Profile of the Working Poor, 2005

In 2005, the U.S. Census estimated that 37.0 million people, or 12.6 percent of the population, lived at or below the official poverty threshold. Additionally, 7.7 million were classified as “working poor,” who were at or below the poverty threshold and had worked 27 weeks in the past year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics authored this report on the demographics of the working poor from the 2005 Census data.