Income Fact Sheet on Older Hispanics / Carmela G. Lacayo.

This brief income fact sheet presents information on the poverty of elderly Hispanics compiled from Bureau of the Census data. The report notes that Hispanics over 65 are more than twice as likely to be poor as elderly whites. Poverty has increased by 13,000 among Hispanics while decreasing by 102,000 for all older Americans. Approximately one out of four (26.6%) older Hispanics was classified as poor by the Census Bureau; this level is the second highest ever recorded for Hispanics since the Census began tabulating data on this group. Poverty is particularly widespread among older Hispanic women. In 1982, the poverty rate for older Hispanic women (31.4%) was more than twice that of their Anglo counterparts (15.1%). Other elderly Hispanics do not fall into the set criteria for poverty but live so near this line that there is not perceptible difference, making the total number living in poverty 244,000. Moreover, these figures do not fully depict the dimensions of elderly Hispanic poverty. Other factors to be considered are Census undercounting of Hispanics and exclusion of people living with others who are not classified as poor. (CG)

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