How does family structure relate to poverty? Official data breakdown
In 2014, the overall poverty rate was 15%. Approximately
12% of all families in the United States were in
poverty. Poverty rates by type of family ranged from 6% to
31%.
The poverty rates by type of family were:
6% of married couple families were poor
16% of families with male householder, no wife present were
poor
31% of families with a female householder, no husband
present were poor
Another way to think about the relationship between poverty and
family structure is to look at how the distribution of families
in poverty by type compares to that of the population as a whole.
By that measure, in 2014 the single parent households (both male
and female householder, no spouse present) comprised a greater
share of families in poverty than their share of the general
population and married couple families are underrepresented.
Source:
DeNavas-Walt, Carmen and Bernadette D. Proctor,
Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014 U.S. Census
Bureau. Current Population Reports P60-252, U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2015. (PDF)
Accessed 10/19/2015
The official poverty statistics, which have been in use since the
1960s, calculate poverty status by comparing a family’s or
an individual’s cash income to their poverty threshold.
