POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES

Poverty in the United States

Abstract

This paper is giving a brief view of the map given on the web page showing the situation of poverty in United States. Firstly we will explain the geographical perspective of the poverty and then some recommendations to overcome this ratio of poverty. Given map for San Francisco includes the percentage wise distribution of poverty in the population and then the census tract for the year 2000. Similar approaches will be taken for the other states also in the text.

Poverty in the United States

Introduction

Here we will discuss firstly about Seattle and then San Francisco. In the map we can see that Seattle is located between the Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) to the west, and Lake Washington to the east. The city's chief harbor, Elliott Bay, is an inlet of the Puget Sound. To the west, beyond the Puget Sound, are the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula; to the east, beyond Lake Washington and the eastside suburbs, are Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Range. Lake Washington's waters flow to the Puget Sound through the Lake Washington Ship canal (a series of two man-made canals), Lake Union, and the Hiram C. Chittenden Locks at Salmon Bay, ending in Shoshone Bay.( Burton, 2001)

Seattle

In the map it is shown that Seattle had a population of 602,000 as of April 1, 2009. In the 2000 census interim measurements of 2006, there were 258,499 households and 113,400 families residing in the city.

As of the 2005-2007 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, White Americans made up 71.1% of Seattle's population; of which 64.9% were non-Hispanic whites. Blacks or African Americans made up 12.0% of Seattle's population; of which 11.5% were non-Hispanic blacks. American Indians made up 2.2% of the city's population; of which 0.6% were non-Hispanic. Asian Americans made up 15.4% of the city's population. Pacific Islander Americans made up 0.8% of the city's population. Individuals from other races made up 3.1% of the city's population; of which 0.2% were non-Hispanic. Individuals from two or more races made up 4.2% of the city's population; of which 3.7% were non-Hispanic. In addition, Hispanics and Latinos made up 6.2% of Seattle's population.

As of the 2005-2007 American Community Survey, 16.8% of Seattle's population claimed German ancestry, 12.3% claimed Irish ancestry, 12.2% claimed English ancestry, and 5.8% claimed Norwegian ancestry. In terms of language, 78.6% spoke only English at home while 5.0% spoke Spanish. About 3.6% spoke other Indo-European languages while 10.3% spoke an Asian language at home. About 2.5% spoke other languages.

Seattle has seen a major increase in immigration in recent decades: the foreign-born population increased 40% between the 1990 and 2000 censuses. At nearly 4 percent, Greater Seattle has the highest concentration of Multiracial Americans of any major metropolitan area in the United States. The Chinese population in the Seattle Area has origins in China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan. The earliest Chinese-Americans that came in the late ...