With a child poverty rate much higher than that of the general
population, the Nation has much to gain from improving the economic
conditions of children and their families. Child poverty is closely
linked to poorer health, difficulty in school and low educational
achievement, behavioral and emotional problems, and delinquency.
Poor children are more likely to need public assistance, and as
adults, to earn less and be unemployed more frequently than children
brought up in families above the poverty line.
Child poverty rates vary across rural and urban areas. Rural or
nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) areas have historically had higher poverty
than urban or metro areas partly due to higher rural unemployment
and a greater share of low-wage jobs in rural areas. The share
of rural children in families with incomes below the poverty level
declined from 22 percent in 1990 to 19 percent in 2000. An expanding
economy and welfare reform in the 1990s both helped reduce the
rate. However, the rural child poverty rate remains higher than
the urban rate (19 percent versus 15 percent). In 2000, 2.7 million
rural children (under 18) were poor, representing 34 percent of
the rural poverty population.
Within nonmetro areas, child poverty rates rise as the area becomes
more rural. Rates in 2000 ranged from 17 percent in counties with
populations of 20,000 or more and adjacent to an urban (metro)
area to 23 percent in completely rural counties. Proximity to an
urban area also affects rural poverty rates. Regardless of nonmetro
population size, counties not adjacent to an urban area had higher
child poverty rates than adjacent counties.
Childhood poverty is associated with two major demographic factors—ethnic
minority status and female-headed families. Black children and
Hispanic children are disproportionately poor relative to their
share in the general population. In nonmetro areas, Black children
and Hispanic children are about twice as likely to be poor as are
White children. Additionally, nonmetro children in mother-only
families are more likely to live in poverty than are children in
two-parent families. In many mother-only families, mothers often
have low earnings, fathers may not contribute to family support,
and financial assistance may be insufficient. When only one parent
generates income, that effort is often compounded by child care
responsibilities.
While child poverty has declined in the 1990s, it still warrants
attention because children are more likely to be poor than any
other age group. A better understanding of the dimensions of child
poverty is important in designing effective public assistance programs.
In hard-to-serve rural areas, special efforts may be needed to
reach the poor.
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