The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995                TAG: 9510060507
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Short :   48 lines

38.1 MILLION, OR 14.5%, LIVED IN POVERTY IN 1994 THE TOP 5% OF THE POPULATION EARNED 21.2% OF ALL INCOME.

The number of poor Americans dropped in 1994 for the first time in four years, although median household income did not change significantly, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

``There were 38.1 million Americans in poverty in 1994, or 1.2 million fewer than in 1993,'' Census Bureau statistician Daniel Weinberg said in releasing the department's annual reports on income, poverty and health insurance coverage.

The poverty rate also decreased, from 15.1 percent of the population in 1993 to 14.5 percent in 1994, he said.

The government defined poverty in 1994 as an income of or below $15,141 for a family of four.

The figures were based on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey of 60,000 U.S. households.

Median household income remained essentially unchanged at $32,264 in 1994. But the gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen, Weinberg said.

``The long-term trend in the U.S. has been toward increasing income inequality,'' he said.

The top 5 percent of the population earned 21.2 percent of all income in 1994 while the lowest 20 percent earned only 3.6 percent. In 1989, the top 5 percent accounted for 18.9 percent of all income and the lowest 20 percent for 3.8 percent.

The reports also found that:

Married-couple family households experienced a 1.8 percent increase in real median income from 1993 to 1994. Family households headed by single women experienced a 4.5 percent increase in income.

Children represent 40 percent of the poor, but 27 percent of the population. Their poverty rate was higher than any other age group - 21.8 percent, but marked a significant decline from 1993, when it was 22.7 percent, Weinberg said.

The South was the only region with a statistically significant decline in poverty, from 17.1 percent in 1993 to 16.1 percent in 1994.

KEYWORDS: POVERTY POPULATION STATISTICS by CNB