The pie chart illustrates the proportion of women in poverty by family composition in the United States in 2008, while the bar chart depicts levels of poverty by sex and age in percent. At first glance, it can be seen that single women without children made up the largest group in poverty, and that poverty was the highest in women, comparing to men.
To begin, the pie chart shows that single women with no dependent children experienced most of poverty, facing more than half of the total in poverty, then followed by poverty of those with children which stood at 26%, just over a quarter. Meanwhile, married women with or without children accounted for the remaining fourth, a total of 20%.
Interestingly, moving on to the bar chart, poverty rates were highest amongst children, starting at about 20% for both genders, and then dropped to a similar ratio of approximately 15% in age between 5 and
17. However, ages 18-24, the gap between men and women significantly widened, with approximately
20% and 15%, respectively. Poverty declined throughout the adult years for both sexes, but a gap remained, and even doubled in old age.