In contrast, poverty is something that most Americans will experience fora short period of time as a consequence of very “normal” occurrences—theloss of a job, the birth of a child, the transition to adulthood, the dissolutionof a marriage, and so on.

economic insecurity will strike a majorityof the population but will do so for a relatively short period of time.

Employment, education, and marriage are helpful in both avoiding povertyand exiting faster if one does become poor.

Poverty spells triggered by moving out of one’s parents’ house tend to bethe shortest, while spells triggered by the birth of a child tend to be the longest.

Research has also shown that poverty entrances and exits are most oftencaused by changes in employment status and/or financial resources.

within 1 or 2 years,the majority of people escaped from poverty. Within 1 year, 53 percent of newspells ended; 70 percent ended within 2 years, and more than three-fourthswithin 3 years. Less than 15 percent of spells last more than 5 years.3 If weconsider long-term poverty as lasting 5 or more consecutive years, then the vastmajority of American poverty spells do not meet such a standard.

It turns out that a much more accurate picture is that povertyspells tend to be short but frequent.