Orange County

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* 654,521 100.00% 877,091 100.00%
In Poverty 73,630 11.25% 106,233 12.11%
Not in Poverty 580,891 88.75% 770,858 87.89%
11 Years and Under 109,499 16.73% 150,086 17.11%
In Poverty 18,248 2.79% 26,270 3.00%
Not in Poverty 91,251 13.94% 123,816 14.12%
12 to 17 Years 48,188 7.36% 71,476 8.15%
In Poverty 7,296 1.11% 10,874 1.24%
Not in Poverty 40,892 6.25% 60,602 6.91%
18 to 64 Years 428,163 65.42% 570,055 64.99%
In Poverty 40,408 6.17% 61,180 6.98%
Not in Poverty 387,755 59.24% 508,875 58.02%
65 Years and Above 68,671 10.49% 85,474 9.75%
In Poverty 7,678 1.17% 7,909 0.90%
Not in Poverty 60,993 9.32% 77,565 8.84%

* 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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