Characteristics of the population below the poverty level: 1983.

The US poverty thresholds are updated every year to reflect annual average Consumer Price Index changes; in 1983 the average poverty threshold for a 4 person family was $10,178. This report uses the March 1984 Current Population Survey (CPS) to present detailed social and economic characteristics of the US population below the poverty level. The poverty rate rose from 15.0% in 1982 to 15.2% in 1983, showing a rise from 34.4 to 35.3 million people. Major population subgroups showed no significant changes from 1982 to 1983; classed as poor were 24.0 million whites (12.1%), 9.9 million blacks (35.7%), 4.2 million Hispanics (28.4%), and 13.7 million children under age 18 (22%). No significant changes occurred in either metropolitan or nonmetropolitan areas. Poverty declined in the South (but still remained high at 17.2%), rose in the Midwest, and changed little in the Northeast and West. 7.6 million families lived below the poverty level in 1983, with neither married couple families nor female headed households showing significant change from 1982. Families maintained by women, however, accounted for 47% of poor families, and the number of poor unrelated persons rose from 6.5 to 6.8 million, with women comprising 62% of these persons. In 1983, the average income deficit--the income amount needed to raise a family above the poverty threshold--was $4,020. The CPS estimates are based only on money income and do not include noncash benefits such as food stamps or medicare.