FINDING: The county poverty rate tends to highlight areas with large proportions of poor people among small populations.

FINDING: If the number of poor in each county is considered, then it is clear that the greatest numbers of poor Kentuckians are found in the urban counties, particularly Jefferson, Fayette, Boone, Kenton, and Campbell Counties.

FINDING: As defined by the Bureau of the Census, the federal poverty line is a useful, but limited, definition of poverty.

FINDING: Like the problem of poverty itself, federal poverty data are complex and sometimes difficult to interpret.

FINDING: The characteristics of the poor vary among regions of the state.

FINDING: Research indicates that poverty is strongly associated with characteristics that individuals cannot change, such as race, gender, and age.

FINDING: State programs other than poverty programs can also be categorized as antipoverty programs.

FINDING: While the addition of jobs in a community may act to reduce the community's poverty rate, it is not necessarily true that the addition of jobs will likewise reduce the number of poor individuals in that community.

FINDING: Nearly 70 percent of adults living with poor children live in families with one or two children and 90 percent live in families with three or fewer children.

FINDING: Over half (51%) of poor children live in married-couple families.

FINDING: Nearly 60 percent of poor children are urban.

FINDING: Poor adults without children are no more likely to be women than men. In contrast, 61 percent of the poor adults with children are women.

FINDING: Only 33,000, or 6 percent, of adults who work more than 75 percent of full-time annual hours live in families with incomes below the poverty level.

FINDING: A summary of demographic characteristics is instructive in showing who is poor, but is not sufficient to explain why certain individuals are poor.