---
title: "Changing Demographics of Poverty"
description: "This posting links to a FactTank article about how the demographics of poverty have changed in the U.S. since the launch of the War on Poverty 50 years ago."
date: "2014-01-13"
authors:
  - name: "D’Vera Cohn"
    job_title: "Former Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/dvera-cohn/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2014/01/13/changing-demographics-of-poverty/"
---

# Changing Demographics of Poverty

Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty, there is debate about how effective it has been, and about the accuracy of the current official measure of poverty. One thing is clear, though: The demographics of America's poor have changed over the decades. [Read more at FactTank.](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/01/13/whos-poor-in-america-50-years-into-the-war-on-poverty-a-data-portrait/#more-253059)