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14 Winning the War on Poverty tenure as president, over 22 percent of Americans lived in poverty (almost 40 million people out of a total population of over 176 million). By 1969 (the end of the Lyndon Johnson era and beginning of Richard Nixon’s presi- dency), poverty had declined to about 12 percent (over 24 million out of almost 200 million citizens). Between 1970 and 2007, poverty ranged between a low of 11.1 percent (1973) and a high of 15.2 percent (1983). Since the recession of 2007–2008, about 15 percent of Americans have been living in poverty. In 2015, this translated to over 43 million of over 318 million Americans living in poverty. The Context of Poverty in the United States When attempting to ascertain how the United States compares with other nations of the world in terms of poverty, it is important to understand the Year Total Population Number Below Poverty Percentage Below Poverty 1999 276,208,000 32,791,000 11.9 2000 278,944,000 31,581,000 11.3 2001 281,475,000 32,907,000 11.7 2002 285,317,000 34,570,000 12.1 2003 287,699,000 35,861,000 12.5 2004 290,617,000 37,040,000 12.7 2005 293,135,000 36,950,000 12.6 2006 296,450,000 36,460,000 12.3 2007 298,699,000 37,276,000 12.5 2008 301,041,000 39,829,000 13.2 2009 303,820,000 43,569,000 14.3 2010 306,130,000 46,343,000 15.1 2011 308,456,000 46,247,000 15.0 2012 310,648,000 46,496,000 15.0 2013 313,096,000 46,269,000 14.8 2014 315,804,000 46,657,000 14.8 2015 318,454,000 43,123,000 13.5 Source: U.S. Census Bureau. 2017. Historical Poverty Tables-People. Accessed April 8, 2017, from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty /historical-poverty-people.html. Table 1.5 (Continued)