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
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.
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
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.
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.