But advocates for the poor were skeptical of the new numbers, saying they had not seen dramatic drops in the need for their services.

"It just didn't seem like things were that dramatically different between '06 and '07," said Glenn Bailey, executive director of Crossroads Urban Center, a nonprofit battling poverty.

The percentage of Utahns living below the poverty level stood at 9.7 percent in 2007, compared to 10.6 percent in 2006, according to Census surveys.

In Salt Lake County, the drop was more stark: from 10.6 percent living below the poverty line to 8.8 percent.

Bailey pointed out that whatever the change in poverty rates, the 2007 statistics are out-of-date.

"At this point, unemployment's up, cost of living is up across the board," he said. "Whatever people have is having to stretch farther."

The new Census data are based on a relatively new method of collecting data that some critics say is not yet accurate.

Nonprofits weren't that less busy in 2007 versus 2006, said Shawn Teigen, housing policy analyst at Utah Community Action Partnership Association, which focuses on low-income issues.

"It isn't like there's a lot of extra funds laying around [in 2008] because it wasn't needed from the previous year," he said.

Despite the positive trend in the statewide data, county-level numbers pointed to more worrisome trends. At 13.4 percent, Cache County had one of the highest poverty rates in Utah, more than twice that of Davis County.

Similarly, Cache had one of the higher percentages of people 65 and over living in poverty, at 7.7 percent, although this data has a high margin of error.

The advocates all pointed out that the federal definition of poverty does not necessarily represent the number of people who may be struggling.

"Poverty is not the true measure of need," said Gina Cornia, the executive director of Utahns Against Hunger. "The poverty level is pretty low."

Bailey from Crossroads described it as an "arbitrary number."

"You could find people just above that line that are still living day-to-day in need of assistance from time to time," he said.

jlyon@sltrib.com

In 2006

* Utah: 10.6 %

* Salt Lake County: 10.6 %

In 2007

* Utah: 9.7 %

* Salt Lake County: 8.8 %

* Weber County, at 14.2 %, had one of the highest percentages of children living in poverty.