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 new Supplemental Poverty Measure, is estimated at 16.0 percent. The official poverty rate stands at 15.1 percent. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 14.5 percent of all households were "food insecure" in 2010 (which means that at least some household members didn't have access to enough food for an "active, healthy life").
• Unemployment: The U.S. unemployment rate for January is 8.3 percent. The employment-to-population ratio, which was 58.5 percent in January, is nearly 5 percentage points lower than just five years ago.
• 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.