CHILDREN IN POVERTY

In 2004, just over 13 million children under 18 years of age lived in households with incomes below the Federal poverty threshold ($19,307 for a family of four);¹ this represents 17.8 percent of all children in the United States. Children represented over one-third of people in poverty, but only one-quarter of the population.

Poverty affects many aspects of a child’s life, including living conditions, access to health care, and adequate nutrition, all of which contribute to health status. Black and Hispanic children are particularly vulnerable to poverty. A much higher proportion of Black (33.6 percent) and Hispanic (28.9 percent) children under age 18 were poor than were their non-Hispanic White counterparts (10.5 percent).

Children in single-parent families are particularly likely to be poor: of children under age 6 living with a single mother, 52.6 percent lived in poverty, approximately five times the rate of their counterparts in married-couple families. Although they compose only 18 percent of all families in the United States, female-headed households represent about half of all families in poverty.

¹ Following the Office of Management and Budget’s Statistical Policy Directive 14, the Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty.

> Line Chart: Children Under Age 18 Living in Households with Incomes Below 100 Percent of Poverty Level, by Race/Ethnicity: 1976-2004

> Pie Chart: Families Below 100 Percent of Poverty Level, by Family Type: 2004