10.5 percent) were classified as poor; the compara-
ble figures for Hispanics were 8 million (25.6 per-
cent), and 9 million (26.1 percent) for blacks. The
large number of poor female-headed families was
recognized as a major social problem. In 1999,
the poverty rate for such families was 27.8 per-
cent: 39.3 percent for blacks, 38.1 for Hispanics, and
18.6 percent for whites.
Health There were some improvements in the
health of Americans during the 1990’s. In 1990, 77
percent of the population reported that they consid-
ered their health to be good, and the percentage in-
creased to 79.2 percent in 1999. This improvement,
however, was only half as large as the improvement
that had occurred during the 1980’s. Likewise, the
percentage of people smoking tobacco products de-
clined from 25.5 percent in 1990 to 23.5 percent in
1999, whereas the 1980’s had seen a decline of al-
most 10 percent. The percentage of people having
health insurance during the 1990’s did not change
in any discernable pattern, for it simply fluctuated
between 85 and 86 percent.
One of the more positive indicators of well-being
was the continuing decline in the infant mortality
rate, which went from 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births
in 1990 to 7.1 in 1999. This was a continuation of a
long-term trend, having previously declined from 26
in 1960 to 12.6 in 1980. Experts attributed most of
the decline to improvements in medical attention at
birth. Despite this improvement, however, critics
noted that by 1999 most western European coun-
tries had achieved a rate of five or fewer deaths.
The Department of Health and Human Services
reported a small increase in average life expectancy
at birth, rising from 75.4 years in 1990 to 76.7 years
in 1999. For men, life expectancy rose from 71.8
years in 1990 to 73.9 years in 1999. For women, in
contrast, the increase was less, rising from 78.8 to
79.4. Some experts suggested that the relative lack of
gain for women was due to their greater participa-
tion in the labor market with its accompanying
stress. The racial disparity in average life expectancy
was particularly striking. African Americans of both
sexes died about ten years younger than did Euro-
pean Americans.
The decade saw more than 360,000 new diag-
nosed cases of acquired immunodeficiency syn-
drome (AIDS), a number that represented about
half of the total number diagnosed since the disease
had been identified in 1981. African Americans ac-
counted for 44 percent of reported AIDS cases.
Women accounted for 17 percent. Although many
experts became pessimistic about the possibility of
finding a cure or a vaccination, improvements in
treatments during the decade resulted in increased
life expectancy for persons with AIDS.
Crime and Prison The Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion (FBI) reported that the rate of index crimes de-
creased by 22 percent from 1990 to 1999. The gen-
eral public acknowledged this improvement. In
1999, 46 percent of persons eighteen years of age or
older said that there was less crime in their neighbor-
hood than a year ago, compared with only 18 per-
cent in 1990 and 8 percent in 1980. The crime rate of
the 1990’s, nevertheless, continued to be quite high
when compared with the 1950’s, because the rate
had more than tripled between 1960 and 1990.
The FBI statistics indicated a significant decline
occurred in all index crimes. In 1990, a total of
23,438 persons were murdered—a rate of 9.4 per
100,000 people. In 1999, the number of murders de-
clined to 15,522—a rate of 5.8 per 100,000. The re-
corded rate of violent crimes in 1992 was more than
750 per 100,000, compared with less than 550 per
100,000 in 1999. A similar decline occurred in
crimes against property. In 1990, slightly more than
three million cases of burglary were reported, com-
pared with 2.1 million cases in 1999.
Most criminologists agreed that there were a
number of reasons for the decline in the crime rates.
One important demographic factor was the de-
crease in the number of young males age fifteen to
twenty-four, which dropped by 5 percent during the
decade. A second demographic factor was the great
increase in the number of inmates held in U.S. pris-
ons and jails, which soared from less than one mil-
lion in 1990 to more than two million in 1999. Crimi-
nologists also pointed to the relative prosperity of
the decade, the decline in the drug trade, and the
application of community policing in New York and
other cities.
Education The 1990’s saw a modest increase in the
percentage of persons age twenty-five or older who
had completed high school. In 1990, 79.1 percent of
whites had completed high school, compared with
66.2 percent of blacks and 50.8 percent of Hispanics.
In 1999, the number of white high school graduates
had grown to 84.3 percent, whereas the black rateThe Nineties in America Demographics of the United States 251