POVERTY BY AGE

Families in Poverty
In 2006, the poverty rate and number of American families in poverty remained the same at 7.7 million and 9.8 percent.

Adults in Poverty
For Americans 18 to 64 years old, both the number in poverty and the poverty rate remained the same from 2005 to 2006, at 20.2 million and 10.8 percent.

The number of elderly in poverty decreased from 3.6 million in 2005 to 3.4 million in 2006, while the poverty rate decreased to 9.4 percent from 10.1 percent.*

American Children in Poverty
For children under age 18 in America, the poverty rate (17.4 percent) and number of children (12.8 milllion) living in poverty remained unchanged in 2006.

Children represent 35.2 percent of all the people in poverty. (Children are 25 percent of the total population.) The poverty rate for children is far higher than for adults and seniors.

Children under the age of six are particularly vulnerable to poverty. In 2006, the poverty rate for related children under six living in families remained the same; at 20 percent, or 4.8 million children.

Among children under six living in families with only a female householder (with no father present) more than one out of every two, or 52.7 percent, were in poverty. That’s more than five times the rate of their counterparts in married-couple families.

TOP TEN STATES WITH HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN UNDER 18 LIVING IN POVERTY

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007