Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 6, 1995                   TAG: 9510060059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

FEWER PEOPLE ARE POOR, BUT WEALTH STILL RISES TO TOP

After adjustments for inflation, median household income remained unchanged at $32,264 in 1994, the first year affected by President Clinton's budget policies. Half the households earned more and half had less.

In March, Census Bureau workers interviewed people in 60,000 households about their earnings in 1994. Census Bureau statistician Daniel H. Weinberg said the survey found these trends:

For the first time in 10 years, both the number of poor persons and the poverty rate declined. In 1994, a family of four with income of less than $15,141 was considered poor.

The bureau reported that 38.1 million Americans were poor in 1994 (down 1.2 million), accounting for 14.5 percent of the population (down 0.6 percentage points). Income gains of 5 percent for black families and 4 percent for families headed by women accounted for much of the improvement.

Median household income was $32,264, up less than 1 percent.

A 2.9 percent jump in the South, still the nation's poorest region, was offset by a 0.4 percent decline in the West. A 2.5 percent increase among families was offset by a 2.1 percent drop among people who don't live with their relatives.

In 1994, 39.7 million Americans, or 15.2 percent, lacked health insurance, roughly the same as the previous year.

``Perhaps surprisingly, part-time workers had lower coverage rates than nonworkers,'' Weinberg said. ``That is because nonworkers are more likely [than part-time workers] to be covered by government health programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.''

There is no official definition of middle class, but Weinberg said many people say it's the middle 60 percent of the income spectrum.

By that informal definition, you were middle class in 1994 if you lived in a household with an income between $13,426 and $62,841.

The middle three-fifths, like the poor, continue to get a shrinking piece of the national economic pie:

The one-fifth living on less than $13,426 got 3.6 percent of the nation's aggregate income in 1994. That was down from 4.0 percent in 1984 and 4.3 percent in 1984.

The three-fifths in the middle got 47.3 percent of the aggregate income, down from 50.8 percent in 1984 and 52.2 percent in 1974.

The one-fifth living on more than $62,841 got 49.1 percent of the income, up from 45.2 percent in 1984 and 43.5 percent in 1974.