WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- One out of every eight Americans now lives below the poverty line, as the percentage of the US population living in poverty rose for the third consecutive year in 2003, the US Census Bureau reported Thursday.

    The Bureau said in its annual poverty report that the number of Americans living in poverty last year increased by 1.3 million to 35.8 million, accounting for about 12.5 percent of the nation's population, 0.4 percentage points more than the previous year. The rise is particularly noticeable among children, with 12.9 million living in poverty last year, or 17.6 percent of the under-18 population. That represented an increase of about 800,000 from 2002, when 16.7 percent of children lived in poverty.

    The poverty line varies according to the size of household. According to the Census Bureau, the threshold for a family of four was 18,810 US dollars, for a family of two it was 12,015 dollars. The median household income, when adjusted for inflation, remained basically flat last year at 43,318 dollars.

    Meanwhile, nearly 45 million people lacked health insurance --or 15.6 percent of the population -- up from 43.5 million in 2002,or 15.2 percent of the population, the Bureau said.

    The number of those who lacked health insurance also rose for three consecutive years.

    The Census Bureau normally releases these reports in late September. Some Democrats have claimed this year's early release is an attempt by the Bush administration to play down the negative effect of the report in an election year. Enditem