Do rural elderly women experience higher rates of poverty?
In 2000, women accounted for 66% of rural older persons age 60 and above with family incomes less than $10,000. Statistics provided by the USDA demonstrate that older women in rural America are much more likely to be poor than older men, with 15% of non-metro women age 60 and older poor in 2000, compared with 11% of men. For rural elderly age 85 and older, four-fifths of the elderly with low income were women. These and other statistics demonstrate the economic vulnerability that rural women face.
