NWLC Analysis of 2015 Census Poverty Data

Data in Detail:

Poverty:

• More than 1 in 8 adult women (18 and older), nearly 17 million, lived in poverty in 2015. The poverty rate among women was 13.4 percent in 2015, down from 14.7 percent in 2014.
• The poverty rate for adult men in 2015 was 9.9 percent, down from 10.9 percent in 2014.
• Poverty rates were higher for women who head families (36.5 percent), African American women (23.1 percent), Hispanic women (20.9 percent) and young, Milennial women ages 18-24 (21.7 percent).
• The poverty rate for women 65 and older decreased to 10.3 percent in 2015, from 12.1 percent in 2014. About two-thirds (64.6 percent) of the elderly poor were women in 2015.
• About 1 in 5 (19.7 percent) children (19.7 percent) lived in poverty in 2015, down from 21.1 percent in 2014. More than half (56.2 percent) lived in female-headed families in 2015, unchanged from 2014.

Wage Gap:

• Women working full time, year round were paid only 80 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, statistically unchanged from 2014.
• Black women working full time, year round were typically paid only 63 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts, statistically unchanged from 2014.
• Hispanic women working full time, year round were typically paid only 54 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts, statistically unchanged from 2014.

Health insurance:

• The uninsurance rate among women 18-64 dropped by nearly one-third, from 16.9 percent in 2013 to 11.3 percent in 2015.
• More than 16.8 million women 18-64 relied on Medicaid in 2015, up 3.2 million since the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2013.

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