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June 1, 2006 North Dakota’s Poverty Rate Down Approximately one in 10 North Dakotans was living in poverty in 2003, a rate down slightly from 10 years ago, when one in eight was living in poverty. This month’s “Population Bulletin,” a monthly publication from the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University, focuses on poverty estimates released from the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program through the U.S. Census Bureau. SAIPE provides annual estimates of the number and percentage of total adults and children living in poverty. These estimates are based on a sample of households. Due to the relatively small population base in North Dakota and the need to keep costs of data collection manageable, the sample sizes for the state are relatively small, which increases the likelihood of error. Therefore, confidence intervals are calculated to account for this sampling error. For example, SAIPE estimates indicate that 10.5 percent of all North Dakotans were living in poverty in 2003. However, to be 90 percent confident of the true poverty level, a range from 9.7 percent to 11.3 percent is used. “Even considering the confidence intervals, the good news for our state is that overall, poverty has trended downward since the early 1990s,” says Richard Rathge, State Data Center director. Certain populations in North Dakota are harder hit by poverty than others. Poverty rates in North Dakota were notably higher in reservation areas, with Sioux, Rolette and Benson counties averaging one in four people living in poverty in 2003. In addition, children had a greater likelihood for poverty than the general public throughout the state. The percentage of North Dakota children ages 0 to 17 living in poverty was estimated at 13.5 percent in 2003, while the percentage of children ages 0 to 4 living in poverty was 18.7 percent. When making important decisions based on these data, one needs to be mindful of the confidence intervals (11.9 percent to 15 percent for children ages 0 to 17 and 14.8 percent to 22.6 percent for children ages 0 to 4). Nationally, 12.5 percent of the population was living in poverty in 2003, 17.6 percent of children ages 0 to 17 and 20.3 percent of children ages 0 to 4 were living in poverty (90 percent confidence intervals are 12.2 to 12.7, 17.2 to 18.1, and 19.3 to 21.4 percent, respectively). ### Source:
Richard Rathge, (701) 231-8621, richard.rathge@ndsu.edu
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