among children and adolescents up to the age of the poverty rate increased by almost percentage points while poverty among those aged over fell by percentage points owing among other things to the expansion of noncontributory pension systems in the region eclac a thus the ratio between children and young people living in poverty and older people in the same situation rose from to and in the case of extreme poverty the ratio jumped from to the femininity index of poverty is calculated as the ratio between the poverty rate of women of working age years and the poverty rate of men of the same age group it is useful because it demonstrates the extent to which women are either overrepresented or underrepresented among the total population living in poverty