Data on Poverty & Income

Poverty is a women’s issue. Nearly six in ten poor adults are women, and more than half of all poor children live in families headed by women. Poverty rates are especially high for single mothers, women of color, and elderly women living alone.

In addition to the resources below, please see NWLC's detailed analysis of the 2012 Census poverty data, as well as past reports on women's income and poverty rates.

Highlights

Reports & Toolkits | Insecure & Unequal: Poverty Among Women and Families 2000-2012

September 26, 2013

This report provides a gender analysis of national and state poverty and income data for 2012, released by the Census Bureau in September 2013.

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Fact Sheet | National Snapshot: Poverty Among Women & Families, 2012

September 18, 2013

The poverty rates for women, like poverty rates overall, remained at historically high levels in 2012, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released in September 2013. Women’ poverty rates were once again substantially above the poverty rates for men.

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Fact Sheet | FAQs about the Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure

September 19, 2013

Each year, the Census Bureau releases data on poverty and income in the United States, and the National Women’s Law Center analyzes these data to provide a picture of how women and their families are faring. The following frequently asked questions take a closer look at what the Census Bureau numbers tell us—and don’t tell us—about poverty.

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Infographics and Internet Memes | Women and Poverty, State by State

September 24, 2013

More than one in seven women, nearly 17.8 million, lived in poverty last year. Poverty rates were particularly high for families headed by single mothers – more than four in ten (40.9 percent) were poor. More than half (56.1 percent) of poor children lived in female-headed families in 2012.
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More Resources

Fact Sheet | Women Can't Afford Unfair Pay Today

April 11, 2012

Click HERE to download the full report.

American women who work full time, year round are paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. This gap in earnings translates into $10,784 less per year in median earnings, leaving women and their families shortchanged. The wage gap is even more substantial when race and gender are considered together, with African-American women making only 62 cents, and Hispanic women only 54 cents, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. Although enforcement of the Equal Pay Act as well as other civil rights laws has helped to narrow the wage gap over time, it is critical for women and their families that the significant pay disparities that remain are addressed.

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Fact Sheet | The Wage Gap State by State: 2012 Fact Sheets

April 10, 2012

At the time of the Equal Pay Act's passage in 1963, women working full time, year-round were paid merely 59 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. Enforcement of the Equal Pay Act and related civil rights laws has helped to narrow the wage gap, but significant disparities remain and must be addressed.

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Fact Sheet | New Census report supports NWLC’s findings that proposed Social Security cuts would especially hurt elderly women

November 18, 2011

Women are three-quarters of the very elderly (individuals 90 and older) and very elderly women are more economically insecure and more likely to have a disability than very elderly men. These facts show that changing the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) from its current index to  the “chained CPI” will result in significant cuts to Social Security benefits that deepen over the years and dramatically increase economic insecurity among the elderly—especially women.

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Resource Page | State-By-State Poverty Data from the 2010 Census

September 22, 2011

Updated September 23, 2011

These 51 fact sheets provide state-specific information on poverty and economic insecurity for women and their families based on NWLC's analysis of 2010 Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Click on your state below to find statistics on the poverty rates among women and children, the wage gap, health insurance coverage for women and children, and women's unemployment.

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Reports & Toolkits | Poverty Among Women and Families, 2000-2010: Extreme Poverty Reaches Record Level as Congress Faces Critical Choices

September 16, 2011

2010 marked the first full year of the recovery that began when the “Great Recession” officially ended in June 2009 but the latest Census Bureau data show that rates of poverty and extreme poverty rose in 2010, hitting women and families hardest. 

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