Child poverty rate declines overall, but holds stead for blacks
LA School Report | July 15, 2015
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By Ellen Patten and Jens Manuel Korgstad
The share of American children living in poverty has declined slightly since 2010 as the nation’s economy has improved. But the poverty rate has changed little for black children, the group most likely to be living in poverty, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.
Overall, 20 percent of children in the U.S., or 14.7 million, lived in poverty in 2013 – down from 22 percent, or 16.3 million, in 2010. (Poverty in 2013 was defined as living in a household with an annual income below $23,624 for a family of four with two related children.)
During this period, the poverty rate declined for Hispanic, white and Asian children. Among black children, however, the rate held steady at about 38 percent. Black children were almost four times as likely as white or Asian children to be living in poverty in 2013, and significantly more likely than Hispanic children.
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