The number of Americans living in poverty rose last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released yesterday, with Pennsylvania one of just seven states that showed an increase and Allegheny County sporting one of the biggest jumps.

	Report highlights 37 million Americans lived in poverty (12.7%) in 2004, up from 35.9 million (12.5%) in 2003. 2004 marked the second consecutive year in which real median household income showed no change, remaining flat at $44,389. Pennsylvania's poverty rate rose 0.9 percentage points to 10.9%. Allegheny County's poverty rate rose 2.1 percentage points to 11.1%. While the nation's uninsured rate held steady at 15.7 percent, the number of people lacking health insurance rose by 800,000, to 45.8 million. On the Internet Read the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 American Community Survey

Among counties with populations of more than 1 million people, Allegheny County's poverty rate rose 2.1 percentage points to 11.1 percent -- among the country's largest increases.

Census data showed that even though the county's population decreased by about 48,100 people between 2003 and 2004, the number of people living below federally mandated poverty guidelines increased by about 7,000.

Still, the county fared much better than Philadelphia County -- its poverty rate of 24.9 percent was the country's fifth worst -- and the nation, which saw its poverty rate rise to 12.7 percent last year from 12.5 percent.

High-paying industry job losses coupled with an increase in lower paying service industry jobs were behind Allegheny County's poverty rate increase, said Kristen Woellmer, executive director of the Pennsylvania County Human Services Administrator Association.

As for Pennsylvania, its poverty rate of 10.9 percent rose 0.9 percentage point over a two-year period between the years 2002-03 and 2003-04. The increase matched Ohio but was less than Wisconsin (1.9 percentage points), Kentucky (1.8), Indiana (1.3), Missouri (1.2) and Maryland (1.2).

Nationally, the two-tenths of a percentage point increase in the poverty rate meant that 37 million people -- up about 1.1 million from 2003 -- were in poverty in 2004. The federal government defined the average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2004 as an income of $19,307.

The census data comes from the American Community Survey, an annual household survey. The information provides a measure of the country's economic well-being.

National poverty rates were unchanged for blacks (24.7 percent) and Hispanics (21.9 percent), while they rose for non-Hispanic whites (8.2 percent in 2003 to 8.6 percent in 2004) and decreased for Asians (11.8 percent in 2003 to 9.8 percent in 2004).

In Pennsylvania, more than 20 percent of the state's children younger than 5 lived below the poverty level last year.

Berry Friesen, executive director of the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center, cited the 2.3 percent decrease, nationally, in median earnings for men working full time as one reason for the spike in poverty rates.

"Families are under pressure when their lead wage earning is making less money each year," he said. "Work isn't taking care of basic needs like it used to."

Nationally, the median household income remained flat from 2003 at $44,389. Among racial and ethnic groups, blacks had the lowest median income ($30,134) and Asians the highest ($57,518). Median income refers to the point at which half of households earn more and half earn less.

Regionally, income declined only in the Midwest, down 2.8 percent to $44,657. The South was the poorest region ($40,773) and the Northeast and the West had the highest median incomes ($47,994 and $47,680, respectively).

The nation's uninsured rate held steady at 15.7 percent, with gains in public health insurance programs offsetting the continued erosion of employer-sponsored coverage.

Employment-based health insurance stood at 59.8 percent during 2004 -- the first year since the early 1990s that work-based health plans covered less than 60 percent of the population. In 2000, 63.6 percent of the population had employment-based coverage.

The decline is, to some extent, a function of fewer employers offering coverage, said Alwyn Cassil of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a health policy group in Washington, D.C. But the larger factor has been employees electing not to participate in employer health plans because the costs are too high.

"It's the affordability issue," Cassil said. "The thing that's most significant and disturbing is the continued decline in job-based coverage, especially in the face of a growing economy."

While the uninsured rate held constant between 2003 and 2004, the number of people lacking health insurance rose by 800,000, to 45.8 million.

The average uninsured rate in Pennsylvania during 2003 and 2004 was 11.7 percent, up slightly from an average of 11.4 percent during 2002 and 2003 -- uninsured rates for states are reported as two-year averages. With an estimated population of about 12 million, Pennsylvania had about 1.4 million people without health insurance during the most recent two-year period, according to the census.

Even so, Pennsylvania's uninsured rate was well below the national average. A report earlier this year from the state Department of Insurance put the number of uninsured here during 2004 at about 900,000.