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The Census Bureau released its annual report on poverty, income and health insurance in August 2004, reporting that 36 million or 12.5 percent of US residents (13.4 percent in California) had incomes below the poverty line of $9,393 for an individual and $18,660 for a family of four in 2003. The overall poverty rate reached its nadir of 11.3 percent in 2000; the rate for children was 18 percent in 2003. The Census Bureau includes only cash income in deciding who is poor, but 70 percent of aid to the poor is non-cash, including Food Stamps and nutrition programs, which cost $42 billion a year and the Earned Income Tax Credit, which transfers $38 billion a year to low-income earners.

Some 22 percent of foreign-born US residents were poor in 2003, up from 21 percent in 2002; 12 percent of the US-born were poor, as were 10 percent of foreign-born naturalized US citizens.

Even though poverty is rising, the number of people receiving cash welfare transfers has been falling. The number of people on welfare declined by 149,000 at the end of 2003 to 4.9 million, while the number in poverty rose by 1.3 million to 36 million, including a third who were children (there were 12.2 million welfare recipients in August 1996). Across the US, fewer than half of the families eligible for welfare received it in 2001, compared with roughly 80 percent before the 1996 legislation.

The US welfare system is a series of state-run programs funded by U.S. government grants that impose rules on the states, such as generally limiting cash assistance to two consecutive years, or five over a lifetime.

Median household income fell slightly to $43,600 in 2003 and was $50,200 in California. The median earnings of professionals were $82,000, compared to $18,300 for those who did not finish high school.

About 45 million or 16 percent of US residents lacked health insurance for at least part of 2003 (over 18 percent in California); estimates of those who are without health insurance during the entire year range from 21 million to 31 million. About 60 percent of Americans received health insurance through their employers, but 27 percent of US residents and 26 percent of California residents are enrolled in government health programs.