California

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* 29,003,219 100.00% 33,100,044 100.00%
In Poverty 3,627,585 12.51% 4,706,130 14.22%
Not in Poverty 25,375,634 87.49% 28,393,914 85.78%
11 Years and Under 5,306,521 18.30% 6,142,844 18.56%
In Poverty 993,624 3.43% 1,234,220 3.73%
Not in Poverty 4,312,897 14.87% 4,908,624 14.83%
12 to 17 Years 2,256,808 7.78% 2,890,133 8.73%
In Poverty 386,651 1.33% 522,880 1.58%
Not in Poverty 1,870,157 6.45% 2,367,253 7.15%
18 to 64 Years 18,453,604 63.63% 20,597,290 62.23%
In Poverty 2,018,869 6.96% 2,668,619 8.06%
Not in Poverty 16,434,735 56.67% 17,928,671 54.17%
65 Years and Above 2,986,286 10.30% 3,469,777 10.48%
In Poverty 228,441 0.79% 280,411 0.85%
Not in Poverty 2,757,845 9.51% 3,189,366 9.64%

* 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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