Highlands County

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* 67,404 100.00% 85,851 100.00%
In Poverty 10,265 15.23% 13,065 15.22%
Not in Poverty 57,139 84.77% 72,786 84.78%
11 Years and Under 8,566 12.71% 11,114 12.95%
In Poverty 2,470 3.66% 3,019 3.52%
Not in Poverty 6,096 9.04% 8,095 9.43%
12 to 17 Years 3,740 5.55% 5,409 6.30%
In Poverty 809 1.20% 1,326 1.54%
Not in Poverty 2,931 4.35% 4,083 4.76%
18 to 64 Years 32,624 48.40% 41,134 47.91%
In Poverty 4,759 7.06% 6,622 7.71%
Not in Poverty 27,865 41.34% 34,512 40.20%
65 Years and Above 22,474 33.34% 28,194 32.84%
In Poverty 2,227 3.30% 2,098 2.44%
Not in Poverty 20,247 30.04% 26,096 30.40%

* 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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