Welcome to inequality.com

The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI), one of three National Poverty Centers, is a nonpartisan research center dedicated to monitoring trends in poverty and inequality, explaining what's driving those trends, and developing science-based policy on poverty and inequality. CPI supports research by new and established scholars, trains the next generation of scholars and policy analysts, and disseminates the very best research on poverty and inequality.

The current economic climate makes CPI activities and research especially important. The following are a few critical poverty and inequality facts:

• Poverty: The U.S. poverty rate, according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure released on September 16, 2015, was 15.3 percent in 2014. In comparison, the official poverty rate was 14.9 percent. There was no statistically significant change from 2013 in either measure of poverty or in the U.S. real median household income. Health insurance coverage rates did increase from 2013 to 2014. See the U.S. Census Bureau press release for more details.
• Unemployment: The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate declined to 5.1 percent in August 2015 and is down 1.0 percentage points since August 2014. However, the employment-population ratio (59.4%) has remained essentially flat during 2015.
• Income inequality: The U.S. ranks third among all the advanced economies in the amount of income inequality. The top 1% of Americans control nearly a quarter of all the country's income, the highest share controlled by the top 1% since 1928.

CPI monitors a wide gamut of other poverty and inequality indicators. Click here for more facts about poverty and inequality.

The activities of CPI are currently supported with core funding from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CPI is also supported with generous funding from Stanford University and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. From CPI's opening in 2006, the Elfenworks Foundation has been an especially generous supporter, and it continues to support many CPI activities. The research of CPI is also supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and other major foundations.