Washington, Sep 10 (DPA) An extra 2.5 million people were nudged into poverty in the United States in 2008, bringing the poverty rate to an 11-year high as a deep recession began to take hold in the country, the US Census Bureau reported Thursday.

The poverty rate climbed to 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million people, from 12.5 percent in 2007. It marked the first annual increase in four years.

The survey also found that median household income dropped 3.6 percent over the same stretch to $50,303 per year in 2008. The US has been mired since December 2007 in its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Most relevant to an ongoing debate over health care reform in Congress, the survey found that 46.3 million people lacked health insurance in the US - up from 45.7 million in 2007.