Alabama

POVERTY BY AGE

While they say little about economic ups and downs in the decade between Censuses, income and poverty data provide us with economic "snapshots" of an area at the time of enumeration that can in turn be compared with economic data gathered from earlier Censuses. Poverty status, as measured in this chart, is determined by Poverty Thresholds, which take into account a number of factors, including income and family size and structure. For example, the 2000 Poverty Threshold for a family of four in the continental United States with two related children was 17,463. However, Poverty Thresholds are misleading because they do not provide an accurate picture of what a �poor� family�s life is like. According to the National Center for Children in poverty, most families of four would have to make twice their assigned Poverty Threshold in order to provide their children with basic necessities, such as housing, food, and health care.

Poverty by Age, 1990 and 2000
1990 2000
Number Percent Number Percent
Total Population* 3,945,798 100.00% 4,334,919 100.00%
In Poverty 723,614 18.34% 698,097 16.10%
Not in Poverty 3,222,184 81.66% 3,636,822 83.90%
11 Years and Under 692,262 17.54% 733,220 16.91%
In Poverty 174,156 4.41% 166,742 3.85%
Not in Poverty 518,106 13.13% 566,478 13.07%
12 to 17 Years 356,348 9.03% 375,507 8.66%
In Poverty 79,480 2.01% 71,139 1.64%
Not in Poverty 276,868 7.02% 304,368 7.02%
18 to 64 Years 2,397,316 60.76% 2,670,787 61.61%
In Poverty 350,179 8.87% 373,940 8.63%
Not in Poverty 2,047,137 51.88% 2,296,847 52.98%
65 Years and Above 499,872 12.67% 555,405 12.81%
In Poverty 119,799 3.04% 86,276 1.99%
Not in Poverty 380,073 9.63% 469,129 10.82%

* The total population is the population for which poverty status is determined. Therefore, the total in this table should not be expected to match the total population in the population growth topic.

Source: Census 2000 analyzed by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN).

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