Washington, Nov 4 (IANS): They may not be starving, but by American standards some 46.2 million people live in poverty today, more than at any other time in American history, erasing gains made in reducing poverty during the 1990s, according to a new study.

Compared to the 1990s they are more likely to be white, live in the Midwest, have a high school diploma and own a home, according to shows, the Brookings Institution, a research group based in Washington, said in a report released Thursday.

"This has been a really tough decade economically," said Elizabeth Kneebone, an author of the Brookings report.

"After two economic downturns and falling incomes over the 2000s, we've seen that (poverty rate) push back up. It's likely that we have not seen the last of the increases in America's poor population."

With manufacturing jobs disappearing and unemployment sticking above 9 percent, poverty rates in some Midwest cities, such as Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, have doubled over the last decade.

And in the South, poverty in some metro areas, such as El Paso, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has increased by more than a third, according to the report.

"These communities tend to have higher crime rates, worse health outcomes for residents, schools are often poorer performing and there are fewer job opportunities and networks to connect people with jobs," Kneebone said.

While there was no official poverty measure during the Great Depression, scholars estimate that about one-third of American families were critically poor.

That is more than double the 15.1 percent poverty rate in 2010. However, because the population has nearly tripled since 1940, there is a larger number of Americans in poverty today than during the Great Depression.

In fact, since an official poverty line was developed in the 1960s, the poverty rate has peaked above 15 percent only twice, in 1993, when it was also 15.1 percent, and in 1983, when it hit 15.2 percent.

To be classified as impoverished, a family of four has to earn less than $22,314 and an individual has to make less than $11,139, or about $30 per day.

While the national poverty rate is above 15 percent, only about 7 percent of people working full time are below the poverty line.