Residence, Race, and Age of Poor Families in 1966

IN RECENT YEARS much research in the United States has been devoted to the study of poverty. Certain broad characteristics have emerged from the aggregate poverty data.l These generalities are well-known to the reader : Disproportionate numbers of the poor are elderly, beyond their working years. Although most poor people are white, nonwhite families are far more likely to be poor than are white families. About half t,he families counted poor in 1966 were headed by women with children, by the aged, or by the disabled.’ This article seeks other insights on poverty. Specifically, analysis is made of data on race and economic status in conjunction with the residential locale of families. What do the data tell us about, where nonwhite families and white families live P Does the evidence on residence confirm or contradict common assumptions about poverty based on such factors as age, work experiezlce, and family income 9 WhaLt relevance do these findings have for planners and administrators of i~lltipOVerty programs? The limited information available on residence of families in 1967, by economic status, reveals that nonwhite families are divided between metroljolitan and nonmetropolitan areas in a different manner than white fa,milies (table 1) .3 The nonpoor families, unlike the poor, are more concentrated inside metropolitan areas than outside. And it continues to be more likely that the nonwhite rather than the white family will be poor. The following figures show, for families in the United States in 1967, the proportions that * Ijivision of Economic and Long-Range Studies, Office of Research and Statistics. l’l?he concept of poverty used throughout the article is based on the Social Security Administration definition of a minimum income required for families of specified sizes. For detailed description of these measures of poverty, see the Social Scc~ity Bulletin, .January lQ65, pages 5-11, and July 1965, pages 3-10. 2 See Mollie Orshansky, “The Shape of Poverty in lQG6,” So&k Security Bulletin, March 1968, page 4. s See also Bureau of the Census, “Trends in Social and Nconomic Conditions in Metropolitan Areas,” Current Population Report8 : Special Studies (P-23, So. 27), February 7, 1969.