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Percent of Persons Living in Poverty, 1990 <br />County % below poverty Persons for whom <br />poverty status is <br />determined <br />Wake 8.4% 408,178 <br />Chatham 9.7% 38,307 <br />Durham 11.9% 173,223 <br />Orange 13.9% 84,556 <br />Johnston 14.3% 80,180 <br />Lee 14.7% 40,598 <br />North <br />Carolina 13% 6,397,185 <br />Source: 1990 US Census <br />To fully understand the issue of poverty it is valuable to examine poverty rates through the lens <br />of race, family status, and spatial distribution. <br />Race and Poverty <br />Poverty by Race, .1990 <br />Race Percent of Overall <br />Population Percent of <br />County's Poor <br />Population <br />White ! 81 % 70% <br />Black 16% 24.8% <br />Native 0.3°!° X5.5% <br />Asian/P 2.5% 4.1 <br />Other ' .46% 0.5% <br />Source: 1990 Census <br />As seen in the prior table there are a greater percentage of non-whites that are in poverty than <br />there are in the overall population. This is most acutely felt amongst the County's African <br />American community, which accounts for 24.8% of the county's poor, despite the fact that it <br />comprises only 16% of the county's overall population. <br />Family Type and Poverty ` <br />Traditional wisdom holds that married couple families without children are likely to live above <br />the poverty line, in comparison to households who do not share such characteristics. This is <br />certainly true in Orange County. According to the 1990 Census 3% of all married couple <br />families without children lived below the poverty line, as compared to 10% of all single <br />householders without children. <br />8 <br />