Mississippi

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* 2,502,902 100.00% 2,750,677 100.00%
In Poverty 631,029 25.21% 548,079 19.93%
Not in Poverty 1,871,873 74.79% 2,202,598 80.07%
11 Years and Under 489,691 19.56% 504,313 18.33%
In Poverty 169,156 6.76% 142,548 5.18%
Not in Poverty 320,535 12.81% 361,765 13.15%
12 to 17 Years 249,577 9.97% 259,441 9.43%
In Poverty 79,549 3.18% 63,902 2.32%
Not in Poverty 170,028 6.79% 195,539 7.11%
18 to 64 Years 1,456,857 58.21% 1,661,122 60.39%
In Poverty 292,081 11.67% 280,390 10.19%
Not in Poverty 1,164,776 46.54% 1,380,732 50.20%
65 Years and Above 306,777 12.26% 325,801 11.84%
In Poverty 90,243 3.61% 61,239 2.23%
Not in Poverty 216,534 8.65% 264,562 9.62%

* 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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