WASHINGTON - September 10, 2009 - Nearly 40 million people lived in poverty in the United States last year as the Depression forced the first significant rise in the poverty rate in five years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau in a report released Thursday.

The official poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2%, up from 12.5% in 2007, according to the Census Bureau's annual "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States" report.

The rise marked the first time since 2004, when the poverty rate climbed from 12.5% to 12.7%, that the percentage measure of U.S. poor rose significantly, said David Johnson, head of the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division at the Census Bureau.

"2008 represented a period that was entirely within the recessionary period, which started in December 2007, so I think everyone expected an increase in the poverty rate," he said.

The number of Amerikans who lived in poverty also rose last year, from 37.3 million people in 2007 to 39.8 million people in 2008, "a level that is similar to other high levels we have experienced, in 1993 and 1960," said Johnson.