 About 6.4% of families and 7.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 18.8% of those age 72 or over.In 2019 Dwight Silverman of the "Houston Chronicle" described Mont Belvieu as "a fairly affluent city" due to its taxes on the various area industrial plants.In addition it is at the junction of various oil and natural gas pipelines numbering in the hundreds.