The Census Bureau poverty data for 2009 show the largest number of poor people in the 51 years that poverty has been measured, 43.56 million, and the highest overall poverty rate, 14.3%, since 1994.  There has been a large gender poverty gap in every year since the official poverty standard was created. In 2009, adult woman were 32 percent more likely to be poor than adult men, with a poverty rate of 13.9% compared to a 10.5% rate for adult men.