"As we celebrate Women's History Month, we are pleased to present the most current statistics from the Census Bureau on the nation's women and how they fare relative to men," said Census Bureau Director C. Louis Kincannon today.

     These statistics are contained in the report, Women and Men in the United States: March 2002[PDF 61K], which shows that women 16 and over in the civilian labor force have made progress in occupations predominantly held by men. For example, 34 percent of women in this age group worked in professional specialty or executive, administrative and managerial jobs, compared with 30 percent of men.

     Other highlights from the report:

• Of the population 15 and over who were full-time, year-round workers, 6 percent of women earned $75,000 or more, compared with 16 percent of men.
• Women 16 and over were less likely than men to be participants in the civilian labor force (60 percent compared with 74 percent). About 3-in-4 women in the civilian labor force worked in four occupational groups: administrative support, including clerical; professional specialty; service workers, except private household; and executive, administrative and managerial.
• Women 15 and over were slightly less likely than men in the same age group to be married and living with their spouse (51 percent and 54 percent, respectively). However, women were much more likely to be widowed than men (10 percent versus 3 percent).
• The numbers of men and women ages 20 to 29 in the United States were about the same in 2002. However, the sex ratio drops gradually with age, to 92 men per 100 women for the 55-to-64 age group. For the older population, the sex ratio declines rapidly from 84 men per 100 women for the 65-to-74 group to 46 per 100 for those 85 years old and over.
• Women were slightly more likely than men to be below the poverty level (12.9 percent compared with 10.4 percent).

     The report and tables compare the latest data on women and men by a variety of demographic and socioeconomic measures, including age, marital status, educational attainment, occupation, income and poverty status.

     The findings are from the Annual Demographic Supplement to the March 2002 Current Population Survey, which uses Census 2000 as the base for its sample. As in all surveys, the data are subject to sampling and nonsampling error.

     A related publication released last month by the Census Bureau, Women's History Month: Facts for Features, contains additional data on the status of women. For example, women age 15 and over who worked full time, year-round in 2001 earned 76 cents for every $1 earned by their male counterparts. That is an all-time high.

Women and Men in the United States in 2002: A Comparison

Characteristic	Women	Men
Marital status (15 years and over)
Married, spouse present	50.5%	54.2%
Married, spouse absent	1.2	1.5
Widowed	10.0	2.5
Divorced or separated	13.1	9.8
Never married	25.2	32.1
Education (25 years and over)
High school degree or higher	84.4%	83.8%
Some college or associate's degree	26.2	24.3
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.1	28.5
In civilian labor force (16 years and over)	59.9%	73.6%
Selected occupations (16 years and over)
Administrative support, including clerical	22.8%	5.4%
Professional specialty	18.8	13.8
Service, except private household	17.0	10.8
Executive, administrative and managerial	14.8	15.6
Earnings of full-time, year-round workers (16 years and over)
Less than $10,000	4.4%	2.8%
$75,000 or more	5.5	15.8
Percent below poverty	12.9%	10.4%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Demographic Supplement, March 2002