November

Statistics on Income and Poverty

The latest Census Bureau statistics on income and poverty show that the income of persons 65 and older essentially was unchanged from 2002 to 2003. Median income in 2003 of households headed by persons 65 and over was $23,787, which not statistically different from the 2002 figure of 23,682.

Similarly, the poverty rate for persons 65 and over was 10.2%, which is not statistically different from the 2002 figure of 10.4%. The poverty rate for persons 65 and over remains very close to the all time low rate of 9.7 in 1999. Historically, there has been a significant downward trend in the poverty rate for the population 65 and over. It was 28.5% in 1966, 24.6% in 1970, 15.7% in 1980, and 12.2 in 1990.

This lack of significant change in the income and poverty of the elderly holds true for almost all racial and ethnic categories. (Asians are an exception).

This Census report also showed that 99.2% of the population 65 and over had public and/or private health insurance. Medicare covered 96.0%, Medicaid covered 9.2% and 61% had private health insurance. [These categories are overlapping since many people have both Medicare and supplemental private insurance; some have both Medicare and Medicaid.]

Additional information may be found on the Census Bureau web site at: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income03.html