A new report on poverty in Illinois finds that 85-percent of the counties in the state had increases in the number of people in poverty compared to a similar study last year.

The 2007 report on Illinois poverty comes from the Mid-America Institute on Poverty of the bi-partisan group the Heartland Alliance. Amy Rynell is the executive director of the group. She talked with Chicago Public Radio’s Tony Sarabia about some of the report’s findings, and says not only has the state’s middle class shrunk but that more people are living in poverty in Chicago’s collar counties.