News Release

CHAPEL HILL – Fifty-nine percent of North Carolina residents recently polled said they think poverty is a big problem statewide – yet only about a third of them said they think the same for the areas in which they live.

When asked about the state of poverty nationwide, more than a third (40 percent) of those surveyed said they think the country is losing ground on the problem, compared to 11 percent of those surveyed who think the country is making progress on the problem. Forty-six percent said they believe "things are about the same as they have been for the last few years."

The survey of 526 N.C. residents, conducted by the Elon University Center for Public Opinion Polling between Feb. 14 and 17, is a component of "North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty," airing on North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC today (April 11) through April 22. This project features a series of reports, documentaries and call-in programs, and seeks to address two central issues: what is poverty and how has poverty changed in North Carolina in the past 40 years?

"At a time when the government’s role in Social Security is being questioned, our poll found that nearly seven out of ten North Carolinians believe the government has an obligation to improve the standard of living of poor Americans," said Emily Hanford, senior editor and producer at North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC and project director for the "Understanding Poverty" series. "And more than half say the government is spending too little on fighting poverty today."

Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said they believe the government has a responsibility to help improve the standard of living of poor Americans, compared to 25 percent who said that was not the government’s obligation.

Nearly six in 10 (58 percent) polled think the government spends too little money fighting poverty, compared to 19 percent who said the government spends the right amount and 14 percent who said the government spends too much.

Of those who said the government spends too little, 61 percent said they would be willing to pay higher taxes so the government would have more money to fight poverty. Thirty-four percent said they would not be willing, with 3 percent saying they didn’t know and 3 percent giving no response.

A large majority of North Carolinians polled (68 percent) said they think that most poor people in the state work but can’t earn enough money, compared to 24 percent who said they think most poor people don’t work.

Those responses were consistent with a similar question: What is more often to blame if a person is poor – lack of effort on his or her part or circumstances beyond his or her control? Thirty-seven percent surveyed said "lack of effort," while 47 percent said "circumstances beyond control." Twelve percent said they did not know, and 3 percent had no response.

The survey also asked North Carolinians their thoughts on the least amount of money a family of four can get by on in a year. The official poverty level nationwide is about $19,000 a year for a family of four. Yet only 14 percent of North Carolinians surveyed think that is enough to get by on. Thirty percent polled think it takes at least $24,000 for a family of four to get by.

The results of the "North Carolina Voices-Elon University Poll on Perceptions of Poverty" are based on a telephone survey of 526 N.C. residents ages 18 years and older. The margin of sampling error for the survey is plus or minus 4.27 percentage points for total respondents. For results based on subsets of respondents, the margin of error is higher.

The full results of the poll are at www.wunc.org/special/poverty/poll/index.html. More information on the series is available at www.wunc.org/special/poverty/.

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC is the National Public Radio affiliate licensed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It operates a five-station radio network serving more than 280,000 listeners each week in communities from Greensboro to the Outer Banks. North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC has the largest public radio news staff in North Carolina and produces programs including "The State of Things" and "The People’s Pharmacy." North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC news and information format can be heard at 91.5 FM in the Triangle and Triad, at 90.9 FM in the Rocky Mount/Wilson/Greenville area, and at 88.9 FM along the Outer Banks.

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Note: Contact Hanford at (919) 966-5454 or ehanford@wunc.org. A news release on the radio project "North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty" is at www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr05/poverty040405.html.

UNC News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu