Child poverty in the USA

This video from the USA is called New Mexico Ranks 49th in Kids Count Data Book.

Nearly one quarter of US children in poverty

23 July 2014

Nearly one in four children in the United States lives in a family below the federal poverty line, according to figures presented in a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

A total of 16.3 million children live in poverty, and 45 percent of children in the US live in households whose incomes fall below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

The annual report, titled the Kids Count Data Book, compiles data on children’s economic well-being, education, health, and family support. It concludes that, “inequities among children remain deep and stubbornly persistent.”

The report is an indictment of the state of American society nearly six years after the onset of the financial crisis in 2008.

A majority of children in Buffalo, New York, the state’s second largest city, live below the federal poverty line, according to the most recent US Census statistics. In 2013, the city’s child poverty rate stood at 50.6 percent, a 5.6 percent increase over the abysmal 45 percent rate in 2012. Buffalo ranks third in the number of children living in poverty, behind Detroit (59 percent) and Cleveland (54 percent): here.

Nearly one in four US children lives in poverty, the highest level in 20 years, with a similar proportion not getting enough food to eat. These were among the findings of an article published last week in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, entitled Seen but Not Heard: Children and US Federal Policy on Health and Health Care: here.