With the single exception of the year 1960, the ranks of the poor decreased steadily between 1959 and 1964, as indicated below: What is perhaps more striking than the steady reduction in the number of the very poor is the failure to reduce the number just above the minimum poverty line: There are today, just as there were in 1959, about 15 million persons in households with income that is above the poverty level but still below what might be considered a reasonable minimum. It will be noticed that from 1959 to 1960, as the count of the poor rose, the number just above the poverty line did drop, only to climb again the following year as the poverty rolls started down. This reciprocal trend suggests that there may be a sizable group in the population living always on the margin-wavering between dire poverty and a level only slightly higher but never really free from the threat of privation (tables 2 and 3): 1963 1964 TABLE 2. ·Trends in poverty and low-income status, 1959-64: Number and percent of noninstitutional population who are poor or near poor Type of unit and income level The poverty and low-income roster The incidence of poverty and low-income status Percent of persons poor or near poor TABLE 2.-Trends in poverty and low-income status, 1959-64: Number and percent of noninstitutional population who are poor or near poor-Con. 1 Income for the specified year, of family unit or unrelated individual below the SSA index at the poverty level by family size and sex of head or, alternatively, at the somewhat higher low-income level (see pp. 20-21 of this issue). SSA index has been adjusted for price changes during the period. The percent that poor or near poor persons (or families) are of total number of persons (or families) in each category in the noninstitutional population. All persons in institutions and children under age 14 who live with a family to no member of which they are related are not represented in the low income roster because income data are not collected for inmates of institutions of unrelated individuals under age 14. As of March 1965, there were about 200,000 such children and 2,100,000 persons of all ages in institutions. * Includes unrelated individuals shown separately above. Source: Derived from special tabulations from the Current Population Survey for March 1960-65, by the Bureau of the Census for the Social Security Administration. 8.3 8.2 8.5 3.3 3.1 3.0 21.1 20.3 20.3 18.9 18.0 17.7 2.3 2.1 1.8 14.3 13.6 14.2 13.2 12.0 10.8 |