Tennessee

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* 4,743,685 100.00% 5,539,896 100.00%
In Poverty 744,941 15.70% 746,789 13.48%
Not in Poverty 3,998,744 84.30% 4,793,107 86.52%
11 Years and Under 797,791 16.82% 916,024 16.54%
In Poverty 177,243 3.74% 176,074 3.18%
Not in Poverty 620,548 13.08% 739,950 13.36%
12 to 17 Years 401,088 8.46% 459,486 8.29%
In Poverty 74,286 1.57% 71,323 1.29%
Not in Poverty 326,802 6.89% 388,163 7.01%
18 to 64 Years 2,958,719 62.37% 3,496,315 63.11%
In Poverty 370,645 7.81% 409,407 7.39%
Not in Poverty 2,588,074 54.56% 3,086,908 55.72%
65 Years and Above 586,087 12.36% 668,071 12.06%
In Poverty 122,767 2.59% 89,985 1.62%
Not in Poverty 463,320 9.77% 578,086 10.43%

* 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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