It is the same for Canada and the U.S.:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LVZ/is_6_23/ai_n24376954
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/poverty_numbers.html

>My 1 in 5 quip was me thinking of children. Here, you can see how far off I was: http://www.govspot.com/know/childpoverty.htm
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>What percentage of American children live in poverty?
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>According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 16 percent of children (20 percent of children under age six) in America live in poverty. The child poverty rate in America is often two to three times higher than that of other major industrial nations. Poverty is defined as living in families with incomes below the federal poverty line ($21,200 for a family of four in 2008).
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>And if *somebody* wishes to compare to other countries, which I did not, *they* might wanna include "other major industrial nations" in the comparison too. Otherwise *they* could end up with a "bad statistic". But that's just my "logic" FWIW. :-)
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>(Barrel fish shoot so easily -- it's not as fun as it would seem. Haha.)
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>>I believe it is 1 in 8 (not that that is much better). A study was done in 2007 that showed 1 in 8 lived at or below poverty level. Now, I am with you on the fallacy of that. The poverty level here is not true poverty in my opinion because I have seen true poverty up close. That does not make it 'ok' though.
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>>However, I think one of the greatest strengths of this country is the fact that we are never satisfied with the way things are. A friend of mine from another country is always chiding me for complaining about how things are. She claims that I am never satisfied and I don't know how great this country is. I tell her that yes, I do. However, it is because we do not settle for simply 'ok' and always want and expect things to improve that allows this country to remain a great country. Otherwise, change would never happen.
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