Population characteristics

CHILDREN IN POVERTY

In 2003, more than 12.8 million children under 18 years of age lived in families with incomes below the Federal poverty threshold ($18,400 for a family of four).¹ Of all children living in the United States, 17.2 percent lived in families with incomes below the poverty level. Children represented 36 percent of people in poverty but only 25 percent of the population as a whole.

Poverty affects living conditions and access to health care and nutrition, all of which contribute to health status. Black and Hispanic children were particularly vulnerable. A much higher proportion of Black (33.6 percent) and Hispanic (29.5 percent) related children* under age 18 were poor than were related non-Hispanic White children (9.3 percent).

Children in single-parent families are particularly likely to be poor: of children under age 6 living with a single mother, 52.9 percent lived in poverty, compared to 9.6 percent of children of the same age in married-couple families.

> Bar Chart: Related Children Under Age 18 Living in Families Below 100 Percent of Poverty Level, by Race/Ethnicity: 1970-2003

> Pie Chart: Families Below 100 Percent of Poverty Level, by Family Type: 2003

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.

*Related children are those under 18 who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption.