Back to Goal 12From Measures and Milestones 2002
p. 42-43, published 2002
At the root of virtually every dilemma that vexes the Commonwealth lies the longstanding problem of poverty and its constant companion, undereducation. Myriad studies have shown that the consequences of poverty are devastating to individuals, families, and to the larger society in which they live. Citizens rank this key goal as the ninth most important to the future of our state, yet next to last on the progress scale.
Table 1: Where Citizens Think We Stand
Persons living in poverty are at risk of having inadequate resources for vital living necessities such as housing, food, and health care. Fortunately, the prosperity of the 1990s benefited the Commonwealth, as the proportion of Kentuckians living in poverty declined from the early to the mid-1990s. This decrease, combined with relatively stagnant poverty rates at the national level, caused the once-wide gap between poverty levels in Kentucky and the national average to narrow considerably.
Figure 1: Percent of People in Poverty, Kentucky and the U.S.
Given the lower income levels and poorer health status of our elderly population, they are at particular risk for problems associated with poverty. Overall, however, the economic status of elderly Americans improved dramatically over the last half century. In 1959, about 35 percent of persons aged 65 and older lived in families with incomes below the poverty line. By 1998 that estimate had dropped to 11 percent, as key federal entitlement programs mitigated the impact of poverty among the elderly. In Kentucky, however, the poverty status of older citizens has remained higher than at the national level. Likewise, most surrounding states have lower poverty rates among the elderly.
Individuals from female-headed families have consistently higher rates of poverty than those with a male head, a circumstance that is linked to a number of factors that have a cumulative lifetime effect. Women are more likely to work in low-wage jobs, be responsible for children, and, in their senior years, far less likely to enjoy the benefits of a pension than men. As shown, however, the gap between those individuals from families supported by women and by men appears to be narrowing.
Figure 3: Percent of Kentuckians Living in Poverty by Gender of Head of Family
Little attention was given to what has come to be known as income inequality in the United States until around the last quarter of the century, when the gap between the rich and poor began to widen. Since then, concern over growing inequality and the potential for related social ills has garnered widespread attention. Beyond the larger issues of social stratification, other outcomes such as poor health, housing, and schools have been linked to income inequality by a number of studies. Their findings and the potential outcomes of income inequality, however, remain the subject of debate among scholars. Kentucky’s gap between its upper- and lower-middle class families has been fairly consistently greater than that found for the nation as a whole. This trend persists even into more recent years.
Figure 4: Ratio of Family Income at the 75th Percentile, Kentucky and the U.S., 1976-2000
To view a list of all chapters in this book, click here. To read the chapters in sequential order, please follow the arrows below.
