The percentage of students receiving federal Pell Grants has grown as incomes have fallen.
A new report from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics found that the percentage of both independent and dependent students who received Pell Grants increased from 1999 to 2011. In 1999, 19 percent of dependent students -- or those who relied on their parents' income -- received the grants. That figure increased to 35 percent by 2011. Among independent students, the percentage of recipients increased from 25 percent in 1999 to 48 percent in 2011.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/23/decreasing-median-incomes-linked-rising-numbers-pell-grant-recipients