If these were counted, the numbers in the official poverty ranks would be reduced. The growing gap between the poverty level and median family income demonstrates the inaccuracy of adjusting a poverty level for price increase but not for rising living standard and productivity gains. Alternative definitions and concepts also have a major impact on the poverty estimates that if transfer payments or income support programs such as social security are not counted, then about twenty percent of all American families lived in poverty during 1988, Government income transfers are, however, included in the official poverty index, and this fact reduced the relative number of destitute Americans. Another issue is that some particular groups are more likely to experience poverty than others. For instance, blacks are three times as likely to be poor as whites.
Families headed by women are nearly five times more likely to be poor than other families.
Families where the head has no more than eight years of schooling are nearly five times as likely to be poor compared to families headed by college educated person. Minority and female headed units are not only more likely to be poor but less likely to escape from poverty. The poor face multiple impediments to self-sufficiency, including joblessness, less than a high school education, and dependence on welfare. Their are four different major groups of poor people. Each of these groups has different problems that are addressed by different programs.