The recession raised the percentage of people living in poverty in the United States in 2010 to the highest level in seventeen years.

Tuesday’s report from the Census Bureau says the poverty rate was just over 15 percent, an increase of seven-tenths of a percent from the prior year. That totals up to just over 46 million people nationwide.

The data show the poverty rate for African-Americans increased faster than for the rest of the population and was just over 27 percent.

The U.S. government considers a family of four is in poverty in the United States if their annual income falls below $22,314.

Tuesday’s report shows the broader impact of the recession, as median household income fell more than 2 percent between 2009 and 2010 .

Some other economic measures were statistically unchanged. Women continued to earn an average of 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts.

And the percentage of people not covered by health insurance remained just over 16 percent.