Married seniors are financially better off
In Canada, only one percent of married seniors live below the poverty line. In 1980, seven percent did.Now this is a really phenomenal improvement. From 7 to 1 may not seem like that big a difference, but think of it this way. If you lined up these seniors and started counting, you'd find number 13 living in poverty in 1980. Now, you'd have to count all the way to 100 before hitting one living in poverty. *
Single seniors have also seen large improvements, though not as dramatic as for the married. For men, the rate has gone from 47% to 13%. For women, the rate has dropped from 57% to 20%.
It would be interesting to know what accounts for the married/single differences:
- Does a successful marriage spill over into success elsewhere in life?
- Is it that government support programs are more helpful to married couples?
- Is it that retirement benefits tend to get cut upon the death of one spouse?
*We know that isn't exactly how the distribution would be in a real random sample, but it is easier to write. This information, by the way, comes via Maclean's magazine.
Labels: marriage
posted by Heather and Dan @ 5:47 AM
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