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THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK ]998
Table 1.1 Children In Poverty, 1996
Number
Characteristic (thousands) Percent
Total 14,463 20.5%
Race or ethnicity
Hispanic a 4,237 40.3
Black 4,519 39.9
Asian or Pacific Islander 571 19.5
White 9,044 16.3
Place of residence
CentraI city 6,509 30.8
Rural (nonmetropolitan) 3,167 22.4
area
Suburb 4,787 13.5
Region
South 5,543 22.9
West 3,842 22.9
Northeast 2,489 19.2
Midwest 2,590 15.5
Family type b
Female-headed 7,990 49.3
Male-headed 779 22.8
Married couple 5,035 10.1
Family employment status
Family member works 9,471 14.7
Part-time and/or part-year 5,793 51.9
Full-time and year-round 3,678 6.9
a. Persons of Hispanic arigin may be of any race.
b. Data are for children related ta the head af hausehold by
birth, marriage, or adoption.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
Calculations by Children's Defense Fund.
Child Poverty: Pervasive
and Persistent
T:e overall numbers of children living in poverty
are deplorable. Even more disturbing, the
proportion of children in extreme poverty
(that is, in households with an income less than
half the federal poverty level, or less than about
$6,250 for a family ofthree) actually grew from 8.5
percent in 1995 to 9.0 percent in 1996, according
to Census Bureau data. No racial group is immune:
40.3 percent of Hispanic children, 39.9 percent of
Black children, and 16.3 percent of White children
were poor in 1996 (the first year that child poverty
among Hispanics outpaced that among Blacks).
And poverty afflicts children in every region of the
country, in suburbs and rural areas as well as in the
cities, and in households headed by couples and by
single parents alike (see table 1.1).
The workings of the economy alone will not
eradicate child poverty. Although the nation was in
its ftfth year of economic recovery in 1996, child
poverty crept down only to 20.5 percent, from 20.8
percent in 1995. The proportion of poor children
living in families where an adult worked at least
some of the time soared to 69 percent in 1996, up
from 61 percent just three years earlier. The average
poor family with children in 1996 got more
than twice as much income from work as from
welfare (see figure 1.3).
Why Poverty Matters
~
ew
CDF report, Poverty Matters, compiles
findings from recent research confmning that
hild poverty is associated with a host of ills.
Notably, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Greg Duncan,
who reviewed several new child poverty studies in
their recent volume, Consequences of Growing Up
Poor, concluded that children living in extreme or
prolonged poverty tend to suffer disproportionately
from conditions such as stunted growth and
lower test scores, and that poverty among preschool
children is likely to have damaging effects
on school completion many years later. Brooks­
Gunn, Duncan, and others report that poor children's
worse odds in these areas appear to be
linked to poverty itself and not merely to other
family characteristics such as parental age, IQ, or
marital status.
As U.S. social welfare policy moves toward a
work-based system, it is striking that a very strong
economy has failed to prevent either an increasing
proportion ofextremely poor children or more poverty
among children younger than 6. Replacing
welfare with below-poverty wages will not lessen a
poor child's likelihood of suffering from a serious
disability, iron deficiency, or falling behind in
4 CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND