Maryland

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* 4,660,591 100.00% 5,164,376 100.00%
In Poverty 385,296 8.27% 438,676 8.49%
Not in Poverty 4,275,295 91.73% 4,725,700 91.51%
11 Years and Under 800,978 17.19% 889,941 17.23%
In Poverty 93,869 2.01% 98,717 1.91%
Not in Poverty 707,109 15.17% 791,224 15.32%
12 to 17 Years 341,124 7.32% 440,839 8.54%
In Poverty 34,654 0.74% 43,160 0.84%
Not in Poverty 306,470 6.58% 397,679 7.70%
18 to 64 Years 3,027,001 64.95% 3,260,619 63.14%
In Poverty 204,943 4.40% 247,945 4.80%
Not in Poverty 2,822,058 60.55% 3,012,674 58.34%
65 Years and Above 491,488 10.55% 572,977 11.09%
In Poverty 51,830 1.11% 48,854 0.95%
Not in Poverty 439,658 9.43% 524,123 10.15%

* 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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