Table 2.

U.S. Poverty in 2012

	Percent Poor (official)	Percent Poor (SPM)	Percent of Poor (official)	Percent of Poor in Deep Poverty (official)
All	15.0	16.0		43.7
Age group
Children	21.8	18.1	34.7	44.3
Ages 18–64	13.7	15.5	56.9	45.5
Age 65+	9.1	14.8	8.4	29.8
All Younger than 65
Race
White	10.3	10.4	40.7	46.6
Black	28.0	25.9	23.2	47.7
Hispanic	25.9	27.7	31.8	39.9
Other	11.6	16.3	4.3	53.3
Region
Northeast	14.2	15.5	15.7	45.1
Midwest	14.5	12.8	19.2	45.5
South	17.5	16.5	41.1	45.2
West	15.9	19.1	24.0	44.8
Urban status
Central city	20.9	22.5	36.6	45.9
Other metro	11.5	13.4	31.2	44.8
Rural	19.4	14.2	17.5	43.9
Unclassified	16.1	14.1	14.7	45.2
Family
Nonfamily	24.0	22.7	24.2	55.2
Family	14.4	14.9	75.8	41.9
Family type
Married-couple family	8.0	10.0	30.9	34.5
Male-headed family	18.5	20.9	6.4	40.8
Female-headed family	35.8	30.7	38.4	48.1
Male (nonfamily)	21.2	22.5	11.8	55.7
Female (nonfamily)	27.3	23.0	12.4	54.9
Family size
One	24.0	22.7	24.2	55.2
Two	11.6	13.3	14.3	45.0
Three	13.2	15.4	16.2	45.1
Four	12.2	12.6	17.4	41.8
Five	16.6	15.7	13.3	38.1
Six or more	25.0	22.1	14.6	39.0
Education level of primary person
Less than high school	40.8	37.9	30.6	44.3
High school	20.0	19.8	34.6	44.8
Some college	14.6	14.3	25.5	45.3
College degree	4.8	6.1	9.4	53.2
Work status of primary person
Not working	51.5	46.3	48.8	62.1
Working less than FTFY	27.8	25.9	32.7	37.6
Working, FTFY	4.6	6.2	18.5	16.5

SOURCE: Authors’ calculations.