Bristol city

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* 17,644 100.00% 16,715 100.00%
In Poverty 3,636 20.61% 2,715 16.24%
Not in Poverty 14,008 79.39% 14,000 83.76%
11 Years and Under 2,645 14.99% 2,293 13.72%
In Poverty 828 4.69% 683 4.09%
Not in Poverty 1,817 10.30% 1,610 9.63%
12 to 17 Years 1,249 7.08% 1,133 6.78%
In Poverty 282 1.60% 199 1.19%
Not in Poverty 967 5.48% 934 5.59%
18 to 64 Years 10,552 59.81% 9,873 59.07%
In Poverty 1,737 9.84% 1,409 8.43%
Not in Poverty 8,815 49.96% 8,464 50.64%
65 Years and Above 3,198 18.13% 3,416 20.44%
In Poverty 789 4.47% 424 2.54%
Not in Poverty 2,409 13.65% 2,992 17.90%

* 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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