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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* 133,405 100.00% 129,056 100.00%
In Poverty 11,560 8.67% 12,204 9.46%
Not in Poverty 121,845 91.33% 116,852 90.54%
11 Years and Under 20,810 15.60% 18,547 14.37%
In Poverty 2,735 2.05% 2,707 2.10%
Not in Poverty 18,075 13.55% 15,840 12.27%
12 to 17 Years 10,040 7.53% 10,862 8.42%
In Poverty 977 0.73% 1,165 0.90%
Not in Poverty 9,063 6.79% 9,697 7.51%
18 to 64 Years 80,636 60.44% 77,080 59.73%
In Poverty 6,190 4.64% 6,696 5.19%
Not in Poverty 74,446 55.80% 70,384 54.54%
65 Years and Above 21,919 16.43% 22,567 17.49%
In Poverty 1,658 1.24% 1,636 1.27%
Not in Poverty 20,261 15.19% 20,931 16.22%

* 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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