Analyse of households living in poverty The table shows us the breakdown of different types of families who were living in poverty in Australia in 1999. Overall, 11% of all families, consisting of nearly 2 million people, were living in poverty. However, households consisting of only one parent with children and one single adult had nearly double the proportion, which is 21% and 19% respectively. The other two categories of families, comprising a couple with and without children, were better off, with only 12% and 7% suffering from poverty. Besides, this is quite obvious that households with children were more likely to be living in poverty than those without children. Families consisting of aged couple and single aged people with only 4% and 6% had the smallest proportion of poverty respectively. All in all, people can make the conclusion that families with children or with a couple living together were generally more likely to be living better off in Australia in 1999.