FROM THE CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND
ENDING CHILD POVERTY
be careful what you cut
Cutting children from the budget now will cost all of us later.
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More than 16.1 million children in America are poor, but they live in working families. A disproportionate number are Black and Latino. Poor children lag behind their peers in many ways beyond income: They are less healthy, trail in emotional and intellectual development, and are less likely to graduate from high school. Poor children also are likely to become the poor parents of the future. Every year that we keep children in poverty costs our nation half a trillion dollars in lost productivity, poorer health and increased crime.
Our vision is to end child poverty. We must invest in high quality education for every child, livable wages for families, income safety nets like job training and job creation, the Earned Income and Child Tax Credits, and work supports like child care and health coverage. We also work with partners to educate families about benefits for which they are eligible.
Children of Hard Times
There are 16.1 million children—nearly one million more—living in poverty. Marian Wright Edelman with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Julia Cass chronicles the new faces of poverty through the “Children of Hard Times”. Traveling across the heartland of America, Ms. Cass reports the desperate toll poverty takes on children and their parents. The stories offer fresh insight into the daily struggle to provide food and shelter, health care and educational support, and find stable employment paying a liveable wage in the United States in 2011. Read their stories and CDF’s response to the sharp increase in child poverty.
Children of Hard Times: New Faces of Child Poverty
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Ms. Cass also contributed to writing CDF’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline® report. More recently she wrote Held Captive: Child Poverty in America for CDF.
Child Poverty in America Fact sheet
This year's fact sheet highlights the new national poverty data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. After nearly one million children fell into poverty in 2010, the number of poor children remained at record high levels in 2011. More than one in five children in America – 16.1 million – were poor last year. Overwhelmingly, children suffer more than any other age group during this recession and slow recovery. Children of color suffer most. Download the fact sheet.
Child Poverty in the States Fact sheet
The new state poverty data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau found that in 2011 more than one in five children were poor in over half the states and the nation's capitol, and in half of these states more than one in four children were poor. Children are the poorest age group in America, and the younger they are the poorer they are. More than one in four children under 6 years old were poor in 21 states and the District of Columbia during their years of greatest brain development. In 30 states and the District of Columbia, 10 percent or more of infants, toddlers and kindergarteners lived in extreme poverty. Download the fact sheet.
Vanishing American Dream for Young People and Young Families with Children
These briefs by Northeastern University economics professor Andy Sum highlight the toll unemployment and poverty have taken on young people and young families with children in the past decade, and the long-term effects this economic crisis will have on America’s future workforce and its economic prosperity. Young families with children have been hit the hardest in what has been called “The Lost Decade” with close to two out of three families living in poverty. Deteriorating earnings for young adults since 1979 have affected their ability to form independent households, reduced marriage rates and increased the share of college graduates living at home. Nearly two million jobs have disappeared from the economy and rampant unemployment, hidden unemployment and mal-employment have affected the earnings of all young workers. This emerging national crisis has long-term social and economic consequences for the nation. Click here to read these briefs.
Data on Child Poverty
The State of America's Children® 2012, a compilation of the most recent and reliable national and state-by-state data on key child indicators, including child poverty. The Child Poverty section of the report includes state data on the number and percentage of children living in poverty and extreme poverty and the child poverty breakdown by race/ethnicity and geography. This section of the report also includes poverty trends among children over the past 50 years and poverty rates of children in young families by the educational attainment of the family householder.Carsey Institute Report on Child Poverty
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute have released a report which details the demographic breakdowns of child poverty in America. The report finds that young children of color in rural areas or single parent families are the most vulnerable to the effects of poverty. Read the full report here.
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