EARTH FUTURE ACTION

DEATH TOLL FROM POVERTY IN THE U.S.

THERE ARE REPUTABLE STUDIES THAT SUGGEST HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS DIE EVERY YEAR FROM POVERTY

One of the most powerful weapons of mass destruction throughout history is poverty.

We don't have definitive numbers, but there is evidence that hundreds of thousands of people die in the U.S. from poverty every year.

Factors like lack of access to education, safety, housing and income have been correlated to higher death rates. These are factors attributed to poverty.

45,000 People die in the U.S. every year from a lack of access to health care

One person dies every minute in the U.S. because they have no access to health care, or because the health care they receive is substandard.

And according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (which is part of the National Institute for Health), approximately 245 000 deaths in the United States were attributable to low education,

176 000 to racial segregation, 162 000 to low social support, 133 000 to individual-level poverty, 119 000 to income inequality, and 39 000 to area-level poverty.

ARTICLES

Poverty Kills More People Every Year in the U.S. Than Heart Disease or Cancer (Soap Boxie, 4-15-21)

Poor people die younger in the U.S. That skews American politics (The Washington Post, 5-31-18)

How many US deaths are caused by poverty and other social factors? About the same as deaths from heart attacks and stroke, study finds (Science Daily, 6-18-11)

REPORTS AND FACTS ON U.S. POVERTY

Estimated Deaths Attributable to Social Factors in the United States (NCBI, August 2011)

Poverty Data Tables 1959-2020 (U.S. Census Bureau 2020)

Facts on the Population of Poverty USA (Poverty USA)

2017 U.S. Poverty Statistics (Kairos PDF, 2017)

POVERTY DEATHS INCREASE DUE TO COVID

According to the World Bank (PDF), mortality and poverty statistics have gotten much worse since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic.

ARTICLES AND REPORTS