ES 1.3

CHILDREN IN POVERTY

Being raised in economically deprived circumstances can have far reaching negative consequences for children. Growing up at or near the poverty line ($15,569 for a family of four in 1995) means not only that a child has a much lower level of consumption than other children, but also that he or she is more likely than a nonpoor child to experience difficulties in school,³ to become a teen parent,⁴ and, as an adult, to earn less and experience greater unemployment.⁵ The effects of being raised in a family with income significantly below the poverty line are correspondingly more damaging.

Children At, Below, and Slightly Above the Poverty Level. Figures ES 1.3.A and 1.3.B illustrate trends in the proportions of children living in various degrees of poverty and near-poverty. Specifically:

• Children in families with incomes below 50 percent of the poverty line. Between 1975 and 1993, the proportion of children living in extreme poverty, that is, at or below 50 percent of the poverty line⁶ doubled from 5 percent in 1975 to 10 percent by 1993. By 1995, this percentage dropped back to 8 percent, still 60 percent higher than in 1975 (see Figure ES 1.3.A).

• Children in families with incomes at or below the poverty line. Less dramatic but still striking, the proportion of children at or below 100 percent of the poverty line increased by 29 percent from 17 percent in 1975 to 22 percent by 1993 before dropping to 20 percent by 1995. The percentage of children in poverty has remained at or above 20 percent since 1990 (see Figure ES 1.3.A).
• Children above but near the poverty line. In contrast, as shown in the lower line of figure ES1.3.B, the proportion of children at or below 150 percent of the poverty line increased only slightly from 30 percent to 32 percent between 1975 and 1995, and, as shown in the upper line of that figure, the proportion of children at or below 200 percent of the poverty line in 1995 was 43 percent — the same as in 1975.

Differences by Race and Ethnicity. There are no substantial differences by race or Hispanic origin in the trends described above, even though the incidence of poverty is consistently highest for blacks and lowest for whites (see Table ES 1.3.A). The increase in the percentage of children raised in extreme poverty occurred for all three groups, while the percentage of children at or below 200 percent of the poverty line has hardly changed at all.

Table ES 1.3.B and Figure ES 1.3.C present a more detailed (but less current) look at poverty by race and Hispanic origin using data from the decennial census.⁷ They show that the incidence of poverty is lowest by far for white children and highest for black and Native American children. While the incidence of poverty grew noticeably between 1979 and 1989 for all groups, the differences between the groups remained stable:

• The poverty rate for white children was 12.1 percent in 1989.
  
  
• The poverty rate for Asian children was 16.7 percent in 1989, nearly a third higher than for white children.
  
  
• The poverty rate for Hispanic children was 31.8 percent in 1989, a rate 2.6 times as high as for white children.
  
  
• The poverty rate for Native American children was 38.3 percent in 1989, slightly more than three times the poverty rate for white children.
  
  
• The poverty rate for black children was 39.5 percent in 1989, slightly more than three times the white child poverty rate.

Child Poverty by Family Type. The chances of a child experiencing poverty are strongly influenced by the type of family in which he or she lives. Throughout the period from 1970 through 1995, about 50 percent of the children living in female-headed families were poor (see Table ES 1.3.C). In contrast, during the 1990s,⁸ only about 10 percent of children living in married-couple families were poor (see Figure ES 1.3.D).
 

⁴ 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.

⁵ Duncan, G., and Brooks-Gunn, J. 1996. "Income Effects Across the Life Span: Integration and Interpretation," in Consequences of Growing Up Poor (G. Duncan and J. Brooks-Gunn, eds.). New York: Russell Sage Press.

⁶ $7,784 for a family of four in 1995.

⁷ These poverty estimates are based on Decennial Census data rather than the Current Population Survey data presented in other tables. Estimates from the two sources differ because the Current Population has a much smaller sample than the Decennial Census.

⁸ The only period for which these statistics are published.
 
 

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