The percentage of various sorts of poor Australian households in 1999 is displayed in the given table.
From an overall perspective, it was apparent that the proportions of different kinds of couples were lower than the figures for single people. Especially, the poverty rate among the elderly was the lowest.
The first look into the table reveals that there were more than 1,8 million Australian families living in economic misfortune in 1999, which was about 11% of the total households. Among them, the number of single parents in Australia was 232,000, which formed the highest proportion (21%). By contrast, although there were 933,000 poor households in the nuclear families category, which was equivalent to 12%.
In addition, there was a clear gap between the percentage of sole individuals and couples who did not have any kids. The number of single people in Australia far exceeded that of couples, with respective figures being 359,000 and 211,000, which were relatively 19% and 7%. Regarding elderly people, the rate of old people living alone (6%) was slightly higher than that of the elderly being with their spouse (4%).
