Children in poverty: Trends, consequences, and policy options

Abstract

The percentage of children living in families with incomes below the poverty line has increased from 16.2 percent in 2000 to 18.0 percent in 2007. 3 Thus, a large number of children-nearly one in five-are poor. a Child poverty merits attention because a substantial body of research links poverty with lower levels of child well-being. For a variety of reasons, when compared with children from more affluent families, poor children are more likely to have low academic achievement, to drop out of school, and to have health, behavioral, and emotional problems. These linkages are particularly strong for children whose families experience deep poverty, who are poor during early childhood, and who are trapped in poverty for a long time. This Research Brief draws on Census data for 2007 to present a statistical portrait of children in poverty in the United States, 4 updating similar briefs Child Trends produced in 1999 and 2002. The brief highlights research on the consequences of poverty for children and suggests program and policy approaches that hold promise for decreasing poverty among low-income children and their families. TRENDS The overall child poverty rate rose significantly. • For children younger than 18, the poverty rate increased from 17.4 percent in 2006 to 18 percent in 2007, the highest rate since 1998. This 18 percent translates into 13.3 million children living in poverty in the United States in 2007, 5 an increase of 497,000 children between 2006 and 2007. 6 The percentage of children living in deep poverty had been declining at the turn of the century but is now on the rise. b • In 2007, 8 percent of children lived in deep or extreme poverty (below 50 percent of the poverty line). 7 The percentage of children living in extreme poverty was 9 percent in 1995 and had decreased to 7 percent by 2000. Since 2003, it has been 8 percent. 8 • Analyses suggest that children experiencing extreme poverty may be even worse off than their counterparts were in the mid-1990s because their families have become less likely to use the social programs for which they are eligible (such as food stamps and Medicaid). 9 a This brief reports on the U.S. official poverty line, which is the measure used in most research studies. Considerable discussion focuses on an improved measure of poverty, recommended a decade ago by the National Research Council. 10 b The 2007 Health and Human Services poverty guidelines list the poverty level at an annual income of $13,690 for a two-person household, $17,170 for a three-person household, and $34,570 for an eight-person household. The poverty line is drawn at slightly higher income levels for residents of Alaska and Hawaii. Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that studies children at all stages of development. Our mission is to improve outcomes for children by providing research, data, and analysis to the people and institutions whose decisions and actions affect children. For additional information on Child Trends, including publications available to download, visit ...

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