Time Trends in Poverty for Older Americans between 2001-2009

This paper studies the poverty trends among older Americans (age 50 or older) between 2001 and 2009. The data for this study come from the University of Michigan's Health and Retirement Study (HRS), sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, and the most comprehensive national survey of older Americans. Particularly, data are used from the RAND version of HRS, which provides a measure of poverty. This paper also examines how poverty rates have changed across different age groups and different demographic groups within the older section of the population in the last decade. Exploiting the panel nature of the survey, the study also reports estimates of what percentage of seniors fall into poverty as they age and how their poverty status evolved over the period of the study. It also shows differences in health conditions of the poor and the non-poor. Generally, poverty rates fell from 2001-2005 for almost all age groups, and then started rising. This correlates to the two economic recessions that occurred during the last decade. During this period, poverty rates rose among seniors, as did the number of new entrants into poverty. Blacks, Hispanics, and single women face a higher poverty rate than other seniors. Poverty rates for women are nearly double that of men for almost all survey years. For example, in 2009, the poverty rates were 7 percent and 13 percent, respectively, for men and women. The chance of suffering a health condition (acute or otherwise) rose 45-55 percent for those below the poverty line.The PDF for the above title, published in the April 2012 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another April 2012 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “Characteristics of the Population With Consumer-Driven and High-Deductible Health Plans, 2005-2011.”