Table 3.
Demographic characteristics and living conditions of ragpickers and non-ragpickers (n = 881).
| VARIABLE | RAGPICKERS % | NON-RAGPICKERS % | P value |
| Age (Years)* | 0.60 | ||
| 18 to 29 years old | 31.3 | 28.0 | |
| 30 to 39 years old | 26.8 | 28.6 | |
| 40 to 49 years old | 24.0 | 25.5 | |
| 50 to 59 years old | 11.1 | 12.7 | |
| 60 to 69 years old | 6.8 | 5.2 | |
| Gender* | 0.90 | ||
| Male | 62.6 | 62.9 | |
| Female | 37.4 | 37.1 | |
| Skin color | <0.001 | ||
| White | 53.1 | 67.0 | |
| Non white | 46.9 | 33.0 | |
| Elementary education (Years)* | 0.01 | ||
| < 1 | 23.1 | 15.2 | |
| 1 to 4 years | 45.1 | 50.0 | |
| 5 to 8 years | 31.8 | 34.8 | |
| Running water at home | <0.001 | ||
| No | 15.2 | 5.0 | |
| Yes | 84.8 | 95.0 | |
| Electricity at home | 0.01 | ||
| No | 10.4 | 5.9 | |
| Yes | 89.6 | 94.1 | |
| Toilet at home | <0.001 | ||
| No | 18.6 | 3.2 | |
| Yes | 81.4 | 96.8 | |
| House build materials | <0.001 | ||
| Bricks | 46.0 | 74.5 | |
| Poor wood, plastic, cardboard | 54.0 | 25.5 |
* matching variable; differences between ragpickers and non-ragpickers are those that remained after matching, and after dropping 35 subjects with > 8 years of schooling