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America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009

Child Poverty and Family Income

Children in low-income families fare less well than children in more affluent families on many of the indicators in this report.31 Compared with children living in families that are not in poverty, children living in poverty are more likely to have difficulty in school, to become teen parents, and, as adults, to earn less and be unemployed more frequently.32,33 This indicator is based on the official poverty measure for the United States as defined in Office of Management and Budget Statistical Policy Directive 14.34

Indicator ECON1.A: Percentage of related children ages 0–17 living in poverty by family structure, 1980–2007
Percentage of related children ages 0–17 living in poverty by family structure, 1980–2007

NOTE: Estimates for related children ages 0–17 include children related to the householder (or reference person of an unrelated subfamily) who are not themselves a householder or spouse of the householder (or family reference person). In 2007, the average poverty threshold for a family of four was $21,203.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements.

  • In 2007, 18 percent of all children ages 0–17 lived in poverty, an increase from 17 percent in 2006. Compared with White, non-Hispanic children, the poverty rate was higher for Black children and for Hispanic children. In 2007, 10 percent of White, non-Hispanic children, 35 percent of Black children, and 29 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty.2,31
  • As was the case for all children, the percentage of related children with family incomes below the poverty threshold was higher in 2007 (18 percent) than in 2006 (17 percent). The poverty rate for related children has fluctuated since the early 1980s, reaching a peak of 22 percent in 1993 and a low of 16 percent in 2000.
  • The poverty rate for children living in female-householder families (no spouse present) also fluctuated between 1980 and 1994; it then declined between 1994 and 2000 by more than the decline in the poverty rate for all children in families. In 1994, 53 percent of children living in female-householder families were living in poverty; by 2007, this proportion was 43 percent.
  • Children in married-couple families were less likely to live in poverty than children living in female-householder families. In 2007, 9 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared with 43 percent in female-householder families.
  • Related children ages 0–5 were more likely to be living in families with incomes below the poverty line than those ages 6–17. In 2007, 21 percent of related children ages 0–5 lived in poverty, compared with 16 percent of older related children.
  • In 2007, some 5 percent of White, non-Hispanic children in married-couple families lived in poverty, compared with 32 percent of White, non-Hispanic children in female-householder families. Eleven percent of Black children in married-couple families lived in poverty, compared with 50 percent of Black children in female-householder families. Nineteen percent of Hispanic children in married-couple families lived in poverty, compared with 52 percent of Hispanic children in female-householder families.35

The distribution of the income of children's families provides a broader picture of children's economic situations.

Indicator ECON1.B: Percentage of related children ages 0–17 by family income relative to the poverty line, 1980–2007
Percentage of related children ages 0–17 by family income relative to the poverty line, 1980–2007

NOTE: Estimates refer to children ages 0–17 who are related to the householder. The income classes are derived from the ratio of the family's income to the family's poverty threshold. A child living in extreme poverty is defined as a child living in a family with income less than 50 percent of the poverty threshold. Below poverty, but above extreme poverty is defined as 50–99 percent of the poverty threshold. Low income is defined as 100–199 percent of the poverty threshold. Medium income is defined as 200–399 percent of the poverty threshold. High income is defined as being at or above 400 percent of the poverty threshold. For example, in 2007, a family of four with two children would be in extreme poverty if their income was less than $10,514 (50 percent of $21,027). The same family would be classified as low income if their income was at least $21,027 and less than $42,054.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements.

  • In 2007, more children lived in families with medium income (32 percent) than in families in other income groups. Fewer children lived in families with low income and with high income (21 and 30 percent, respectively) than lived in families with medium income.
  • The percentage of children living in families with medium income was lower in 2007, at 32 percent, than in 1980, at 41 percent. Conversely, the percentage of children living in families with high income was higher in 2007, at 30 percent, than in 1980, at 17 percent.
  • The percentage of children living in families classified as in extreme poverty was 6.6 percent in 1980. This percentage rose to 10 percent in 1992 and decreased to 7.4 percent in 2007. The percentage of children who lived in families with very high incomes (600 percent or more of the poverty threshold) was two times higher in 2007 than in 1980 (13 percent and 4 percent, respectively).

table icon ECON1.A HTML Table, ECON1.B HTML Table

2 Federal surveys now give respondents the option of reporting more than one race. Therefore, two basic ways of defining a race group are possible. A group such as Black may be defined as those who reported Black and no other race (the race-alone or single-race concept) or as those who reported Black regardless of whether they also reported another race (the race-alone-or-in-combination concept). This indicator shows data using the first approach (race alone). Use of the single-race population does not imply that it is the preferred method of presenting or analyzing data. The U.S. Census Bureau uses a variety of approaches. Data on race and Hispanic origin are collected separately. Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

31 Estimates based on the official definition of poverty include estimates for children in two ways. First, estimates for all children include anyone in the poverty universe under age 18. Second, estimates for related children under 18 include children related to the householder (or reference person of an unrelated subfamily) who are not themselves a householder or spouse of the householder (or family reference person).

32 Duncan, G., and Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Press.

33 An, C., Haveman, R., and Wolfe, B. (1993). Teen out-of-wedlock births and welfare receipt: The role of childhood events and economic circumstances. Review of Economics and Statistics, 75 (2), 195–208.

34 The poverty calculations in this section use the official poverty measure based on the Office of Management and Budget Statistical Policy Directive 14. A child is living below poverty if the child lives in a family with before-tax cash income below a defined level of need, called a poverty threshold. The official poverty thresholds in use today were devised in the early 1960s based on the minimum cost of what was considered to be a nutritionally adequate diet. Since then, the poverty thresholds have been updated annually for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers. Poverty thresholds vary based on the size of the family and the number of children in the family.

35 The percent of Black children in female-householder families that lived in poverty was not statistically different from that of children in Hispanic female-householder families.