Poverty Grows Among Young, Drops for Elderly, Study Finds

WASHINGTON —  The face of poor America has grown younger but otherwise changed little, a Census Bureau study released Wednesday said.

The study found that the share of elderly Americans living in poverty has declined, but from 1970 to 1984 poverty remained concentrated among young and uneducated people with several children but no job.

The new report on poverty in 1984 adds detail to a study issued just a year ago, which showed a decline in the national poverty rate to 14.4%.

Although that represented 33.7 million people living below the poverty line, it was down from 15.2% (35.5 million people) in 1982, which represented the first significant drop in poverty since 1976.

The new study did not update those year-old figures, but it did include some new detail about who lives in poverty. Updated national poverty figures for 1985 are expected to be released later this month.

The definition of poverty status varies, depending on the size of the family and where it lives. For 1984, the poverty threshhold for a non-farm family of four was $10,609, up from $10,178 in 1983.

The new analysis found that 11.6% of all families fell into the poverty category in 1984, up from 10.1% in 1970.

For white families, the rise was to 9.1% from 8%. For blacks, the rate edged up to 30.9% in 1984 from 29.5% in 1970. The poverty rate for Latino households was 25.2% in 1984, but a comparable figure for 1970 was not available.

Between 1970 and 1984 the percentage of families headed by someone age 24 and younger that were in poverty rose to 25.4% from 15.5%. Poverty increased in the 25-44 age group also, to 13.2% from 9.5%. And, for families headed by someone age 45 to 54, it rose to 9% from 6.6%.

For householders age 55 to 64, the poverty rate remained unchanged at 8.2%, and over age 65 it dropped to 7.3% from 16.5%.