Child poverty afflicted nearly 15 million children, or 20 percent of America's juvenile population, according to a new study released on Wednesday.
The report is written by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and is based on data from a number of sources, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Delinquency Survey and U.S. Census Bureau.
According to NPR, more than 30 million children were in households where no parent had a full-time year-round job.
In totality, the child poverty rate grew about 18 percent over the past decade.
The impact of child poverty can be devastating and long-lasting. Researchers found that low-income children are likely to suffer academically, economically and socially long after their parents have recovered. Child poverty also leads to less of a likelihood to find gainful employment in adulthood.
Patrick McCarthy, the Annie E. Casey Foundation's president and CEO, told NPR, “This is really troubling because we had made so much progress in the 1990s in reducing the percentage of children in poverty. Essentially the recession has put us back to where we were in the early 1990s.”
NPR reports other findings from the study include the following:
- Black children were twice as likely as white children to have an unemployed parent.
- Poverty rose in 38 out of 50 U.S. States.
- Nevada had the highest rate of children whose parents were unemployed and underemployed.
- Mississippi was last overall in child welfare for the 10th consecutive year. It was closely trailed by neighboring Louisiana and Alabama, a sign to the poverty that plagues Southern states.
- The top state for children was New Hampshire, ahead of Minnesota, Massachusetts and Vermont.
The child welfare rankings are based on a state's achievement in 10 factors that reflect child poverty, like undernourished infants, infant mortalities, teen births and children in single-parent families.
