The population aged 85 and over, has quintupled since 1950 and will double again by 2010. By 2030, more than 1 in 5 Americans will be aged 65 and older. When it does, it lasts for 10 years. A black child is more likely to be poor than a white or Latino child. For children younger than 18 years old, the poverty rate in 1991 was 16.8 percent for white children, 40.4 percent for children of Hispanic origins, and 43.9 percent for black children.
Poor families are less likely to have nutritionally adequate diets than nonpoor families.
Children who have inadequate diets lag in growth and have more frequent, more severe, and longer-lasting infectious diseases. Fifty-one percent of the students reported smoking their first cigarette in the eighth grade or below. In 1989, more than 27 percent of all births were to unmarried mothers. The proportion of births that were unintended, including both unwanted and mistimed, declined as income rose. Single-parent teenage families impose a large and lasting burden on society.