About one out of seven people in the United States was living in poverty in 2011, according to a government study.

U.S. Census Bureau experts define “poverty” as an income below $23,021 for a family of four.

The study says 46.2-million Americans live in poverty, and the 15-percent poverty rate is a very slight decline from the prior year.

The improvement in the poverty rate is a result of a couple of million people moving from part-time jobs to full-time employment.

Brookings Institution scholar Ron Haskins blames persistent poverty on unemployment, and says jobs are returning at a frustratingly slow pace as the economy recovers from the worst recession in decades.

The report also shows a slight improvement in the number of people covered by health insurance, as the number of uninsured fell to just less than 49 million.

The Census Bureau's David Johnson says private health insurance companies have about the same number of customers, but government is doing more.

“The percentage of people covered by government health insurance programs, which includes Medicaid, Medicare, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and military coverage, increased for the fifth consecutive year to 32.2 percent in 2011. ”

Johnson says a new law that allows families to cover children under the parents' health insurance policies until age 25 also reduced the ranks of the uninsured.