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Renee E. Spraggins
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U.S. Census Bureau Releases Profile of Nation's Women
Last year, about 1 out of every 2 women was married and living with a
spouse, 1 in 4 was a college graduate and 1 in 7 employed women worked in
executive, administrative or managerial occupations, according to new data
on the nation's women released today by the Commerce Department's Census
Bureau.
The Census Bureau cautioned that the new estimates should not be
confused with Census 2000 results, which are scheduled for release over
the next three years.
The statistics on women are extracted from two different products: one
is a series of 21 tables from the March 2000 Current Population Survey,
titled Women in the United States: 2000, PPL-121, covering such topics
as age, marital status, educational attainment, occupation, earnings and
poverty status. They also show comparable national data for men.
The other product is a special edition of the Census Bureau's monthly
Facts for Features, celebrating Women's History Month in March. It
consists of narrative on many of the same topics covered in the tables,
plus fertility, sports and recreation, computer use and voting.
Other highlights:
Most women have a high school diploma. In fact, at 84 percent,
the high school completion rate for women age 25 and over equals
the rate for men. Additionally, 24 percent of women had a
bachelor's degree or higher, somewhat lower than the 28 percent of
men who did.
Among young adults ages 25 to 29, women typically were better
educated than men (30 percent had at least a bachelor's
degree, compared with 28 percent for men).
The majority of our nation's residents are female. Females
outnumbered males, according to 2000 estimates, by 6 million 140
million to 134 million. The male-to-female ratio declines with
age. In 2000, the male-to-female ratio was 105 males for every 100
females for the population under age 20, 98 for ages 20 to 44,
95 for ages 45 to 54, 91 for ages 55 to 64, 83 for ages 65 to
74, 70 for ages 75 to 84 and 50 for ages 85 and over.
About one-half of women 15 years and over (51 percent) were
married and living with their spouse, 25 percent had never married,
13 percent were divorced or separated and 10 percent were widowed.
The majority of women (61 percent) 16 years and over were in the
civilian labor force; 74 percent of men were.
Women are concentrated in three different occupational groups.
About 6 in 10, (58 percent) of employed women age 16 and over
worked in administrative support, including clerical (24 percent),
professional speciality (18 percent) and service, except private
household, jobs (16 percent).
The median earnings of women 15 years and over who worked full
time, year-round in 1999 was $26,300, which was 72 percent of the
median earnings of their male counterparts ($36,500).
In 1999, 13.2 percent of females and 10.3 percent of males were
in poverty.
Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling
error. The Current Population Survey uses the 1990 census as the base for
its sample.
available free from Adobe.
