The Average American Essay, Research Paper

AVERAGE AMERICAN: A STATISTICAL REVIEW

This research paper is about the average person in the United States. In this paperI will write about how much education the average person receives, and how much money the average person makes. I will also write about poverty, family life, and mortality.In October of 1995 there were a total of 13,752,000 students enrolled in public high schools throughout the country. The average person will only complete high schooland go on to college but not graduate from college. In 1995 there were 2,553,000 high school graduates but there were only 1,179,000 college graduates. I have found that the amount of education you receive directly effects the amount of money you will make in the future. While 18% of Americans aged 25 and older lacked a high school diploma in

1995, 23% had a bachelor s degree or higher. These proportions differed greatly by age group. For example, 88% of 35- to 44-year-olds had a high school diploma and 27% had a bachelor s degree or more. But among those aged 75 or older, only 57% had a high school diploma and only 11% had a bachelor s degree or more.

The nation s families had a median income of $38,782 in 1994. But 8% had incomes of $100,000 and over, while 12% were below the official government poverty level ($15,141 for a family of four).Persons who hold executive, administrative, and managerial positions make 703 dollars a week on average which is more than any other occupation. But when you compare men and women in the same position you find that men make substantially more than women. The men make 829 dollars a week and the women make more than 200 dollars less at 605 dollars a week on average. Overall, per capita personal income increased to 24,651 dollars in 1997 The poverty rate is the proportion of the population whose income falls below the government s official poverty level, which is adjusted each year for inflation. The national poverty rate was 13.8% in 1995. Children remained overrepresented among the poor, with a poverty rate of 20.8%. As a group the elderly were slightly underrepresented.The total number of marriages for the first quarter of 1996 was 409,000, an increase of 1% over the number for the comparable period in 1995 (406,000). The marriage rate was 6.4 per 1,000 population, the same as the first quarter of 1995. During the 12 months ending March 1996, an estimated 2,339,000 couples married, a decrease of 1% from the previous 12-month period (2,358,000). The 12-month marriage rate of 8.9 per 1,000 population was 1% lower than the rate for the same period ending with March 1995 (9.0). In 1994, 56% of men and 52% of women aged 15 and

older were married. Of 97 million households in 1994, 71% contained families. Married couples maintained 78% of all families, while women with no husband present maintained 18%.About half of the nation s 68 million families contained children. Most families with children (25 million) included both a mother and a father; 8 million had a mother only, and 1 million contained only a father.

Of the 29 million households without families, 83% consisted of a person living

alone. During the 12 months ending March 1996, there were an estimated 3,873,000 live births, 2% fewer than reported for the comparable period ending a year earlier (3,959,000). The birthrate was 14.7 per 1,000 population, 3% below the rate for the 12 months ending March 1995 (15.1). These lower rates continue the generally downward trend observed since early 1991. According to provisional statistics for the first quarter of 1996, there were 957,000 births, a decrease from the number reported for the same 3-month period in 1995 (976,000). The birthrate declined by 3%, from 15.1 per 1,000 population in the first quarter of 1995 to 14.6 in the first quarterof 1996.A total of 272,000 couples divorced during the first quarter of 1996, a 4% decrease compared with the first quarter of 1995 (283,000). The divorce rate was 4.1 per 1,000 population, a decrease of 7% from the first quarter of 1995 (4.4). During the 12 months ending March 1996, an estimated 1,157,000 couples divorced, a

decrease from the number for the same period a year earlier (1,187,000). The decline in the number contributed to a 2% decrease in the divorce rate from 4.5 per 1,000 population for the 12 month period ending with March 1995 to 4.4 for the current period. The provisional count of deaths during 1995 was 2,312,180, about 1% more than in the previous year (2,278,994). The death rate of 880.0 deaths per 100,000 population was slightly higher than the 1994 provisional death rate of 875.4. The infant mortality rate was 7.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, 6% lower than the rate of 8.0 for 1994. In the year 1996, 69.2 million Americans (26%) were under 18 years old. At the

other end of the continuum, 33.8 mil (13%) were age 65 or older. At the farthest tip were the centenarians people 100 years old or more. About 56,000 fell into this exclusive group. The median age with half of all Americans above and half below was 34.5 years, the oldest it has ever been.I was asked to describe the typical American. There is no such person! America s

population is extraordinarily diverse.

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