A new Census Bureau report shows that more New Mexicans lived in poverty last year than in 2000.
Only Mississippi had a poverty rate higher than New Mexico in 2012.
Nearly 21 percent of New Mexico's population, about 426,000 people, had incomes below the agency's poverty threshold last year. That's an increase of 106,000 residents since 2000, when the poverty rate was 18 percent.
Economist Gerry Bradley of New Mexico Voices for Children attributes the rise in poverty to the recent recession.
But Bradley said the latest Census Bureau estimates appear to indicate "the bleeding has stopped" in New Mexico because the poverty rate in 2012 was not statistically different from 2011.
Median income for New Mexico's households was $42,558 in 2012 — not statistically different from the previous year.
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