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2021 Multijurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan their access and functional needs is paramount to life safety efforts. Emergency managers need to distinguish between functional and medical needs to plan for incidents that require evacuation and sheltering. Knowing the percentage of population with access and functional needs allows emergency management personnel and first responders to anticipate the services needed by that population.  Families Below the Poverty Level—Economically disadvantaged families have limited ability to absorb losses due to hazard impacts. Wealth enables families to absorb and recover from losses more quickly, due to insurance, savings, and often the availability of low-cost credit. People with lower incomes tend not to have access to these resources. At the same time, poorer families are likely to inhabit poor quality housing and reside in locations that are most vulnerable to hazard events. Economically disadvantaged neighborhoods are also likely to have relatively poor infrastructure and facilities, which exacerbate the disaster consequences for community members there. These indicators were selected based on the equity priorities established by the County, and the availability of datasets at a small enough resolution to determine probable characteristics of populations within identified hazard areas. The following sections estimate the age, race, language, and disability indicators for San Mateo County; poverty levels are presented in Section 4.5. Additional data sets that have been aggregated were utilized to support the equity lens for the risk assessment, as explained in detail in Chapter 7. Age Distribution The overall age distribution for the County is shown in Figure 4-6. Based on U.S. Census 2019 data estimates, 16.5 percent of the planning area’s population is 65 or older, compared with the state average of 14.8 percent. Census data indicate that 26.6 percent of the over-65 population have disabilities of some kind, and 6.0 percent have incomes below the poverty line. It is also estimated that 16.8 percent of the population is 14 or younger, which varies slightly from the state’s average of 18.7 percent. Children under the age of 18 account for 6.2 percent of individuals who are below the poverty line. Race, Ethnicity and Language Figure 4-7 shows the race/ethnicity distribution in the planning area according to the San Mateo County Stigma Baseline Survey (Strata Research, Inc., 2020; based on U.S. Census Bureau 2018 American Community Survey 5- Year Estimates). U.S. Census data show that the planning area has a 35.9 percent foreign-born population. The Census estimates 16.7 percent of community members speak English “less than very well” and lists the following as the five languages most commonly spoken at home (number of people in parentheses) (U.S. Census, 2021):  English (401,961)  Spanish (125,880)  Chinese (64,021)  Tagalog (45,801)  Hindi (8,103) Persons with Disabilities or with Access and Functional Needs According to the 2019 Census estimates, persons with disabilities or with access and functional needs make up 7.6 percent of the total civilian non-institutionalized population of San Mateo County. 4-16