Poverty may be more widespread — and more temporary — than you think.

A total of 31.6 Americans fell into poverty for at least two months between 2009 and 2011, according to a recent Census Bureau report. That compares with 27.1 percent between 2005 and 2007.

The last recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009.

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Despite the high poverty rate for 2009 through 2011, only 26.4 percent remained poor throughout the entire period, while 12.6 million, or 35.4 percent, who were poor in 2009 were not in poverty in 2011.

The people in poverty spent a median 6.6 months in that state, compared with 5.7 months for the people in poverty between 2005 and 2007.

"There's a lot of movement in and out of poverty," Ann Stevens, director of the Center for Poverty Research at the University of California, Davis, tells CNBC.

The tepid nature of the economy's recovery in the 2009-11 period helps explain why so many people entered poverty then, and so does the growth of lower-skilled, lower-paid jobs, according to the news service.

In 2012, the Census Bureau counted someone earning below $11,720 a year as being in poverty.

Meanwhile, Douglas Amy, professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College, writes on The Huffington Post that "one of the most persistent myths surrounding this issue is that the best way to reduce poverty is to increase equal opportunity."

That's not the case, he argues. "Poverty is not caused by unequal opportunity," Amy explains.

"The real causes of poverty are two-fold: lack of jobs and too many jobs paying poverty-level wages."

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