ABSTRACT
The declining significance of old age as a determinant of economic well-being has been a prominent theme in the literature since the early 1980's. Poverty rates among all elderly have declined from 24.6 percent in 1970 to 12.2 percent in 1987. Elderly individuals, those ages 65 and over, comprise a larger share of the nonmetropolitan than metropolitan population, making the issue of poverty among the elderly particularly salient in nonmetropolitan areas. Investigators have attempted to measure more precisely the extent to which differences in poverty rates between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas can be attributed to population composition differences. Clues to sources of differences between nonmetropolitan and metropolitan elders can be derived from cross-sectional analyses of poverty among the elderly. These studies generally describe the poverty experience by concentrating almost entirely on current characteristics and living arrangements of elderly individuals.
