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About One-Half of Older Married Couples Have
Incomes of $35,000 or More U.S. Census Bureau
May 20, 2003
About
one-half (49 percent) of married-couple households with a householder 65
and over had annual incomes of $35,000 or more in 2001, according to a
report released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. The
report, The Older Population in the United States: March 2002, also shows
that among married-couple households with a householder 55 to 64, more
than three-quarters (77 percent) had an income of $35,000 or more in 2001. "As
the nation celebrates Older Americans Month in May, this is the perfect
opportunity for the Census Bureau to focus on an increasingly important
age group in our nation's demographic panorama," Census Bureau
Director Louis Kincannon said. The
report also found that more than 1-in-8 people age 65 and over (4.5
million) were either working or looking for work in 2002. Among those ages
60 to 64, the proportions were 57 percent for men and 44 percent for
women. On
the education front, the profile of the older population shows that in
2002, among people 55 and over, three-fourths had at least a high school
diploma. Older men and women in most age categories were equally likely to
be high school graduates. Overall,
6-in-10 people age 55 and over were married and living with their spouse,
with the percentage much higher for men (74 percent) than for women (50
percent). The
older population was less racially and ethnically diverse than the younger
population. While non-Hispanic whites comprised 66 percent of the
population under 55, they made up 81 percent of those age 55 and over, the
report said. A
related Census Bureau publication, Facts for Features: Older Americans
Month, contains additional information pertaining to the nation's older
population, including statistics on voter turnout. For instance, 72
percent of citizens ages 65 to 74 voted in the last presidential election,
the highest rate of any age group. Other
highlights of the report:
- Among people 85 and over, 58 percent of men, but only 12 percent
of women, were married and living with their spouse.
- Among those 55 to 64, 31 percent of men and 22 percent of women
had a bachelor's degree or more education.
- In 2001, women 65 and over were more likely than men in this age
group to be poor: 12.4 percent versus 7.0 percent. The
report and accompanying tables present the latest data on the civilian
population age 55 and over not living in institutions, such as nursing
homes and correctional institutions. Characteristics, which are shown by
age and sex, include race and Hispanic origin, marital status, educational
attainment, labor force participation, family income and poverty status. The
data are from the Annual Demographic Supplement to the March 2002 Current
Population Survey, which uses Census 2000 as the base for its sample. As
in all surveys, the data are subject to sampling variability and other
sources of error. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
