Rural children at increased risk for childhood-ending events, poverty, according to report from Save the Children

Rural American children are more likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to experience poverty as well as "childhood enders", or life-changing events that signal the end of childhood, such as death, malnourishment, dropping out of school, falling victim to violence, or having children as teenagers, according to "Growing Up Rural in America," a new report by the nonprofit Save the Children. A few interesting parts from the report about U.S. child poverty:

• Nearly 1 in 4 rural children grow up in poverty.
• In absolute numbers, that means 11.8 million children in poverty live in urban areas, and 2.3 million live in rural areas.
• Child poverty rates are 19 percent in urban areas with a population of 50,000 or more, 23 percent in rural areas with populations of 10,000 to 49,999, and 25 percent in rural areas with fewer than 10,000 people.
• Rural childhood poverty rates have been persistently high for at least three generations.
• 6.1 million children in poverty live in the South, 3.2 million live in the West, 2.7 million live in the Midwest, and 2.0 million live in the Northeast.
• Rural children were disproportionately affected by the Great Recession from 2007-2009.
• Poverty rates are highest for children in single-parent families, especially those with single mothers.
• Children under the age of 6 are the most vulnerable to rural poverty.
• Most poor rural children are white, but rural poverty rates are highest among black children.
• Disabled children are disproportionately poor, especially in rural areas.
• 1.2 billion children in the world are at risk of experiencing at least one childhood-ending event; the United States ranks 36th in the world for child poverty, between Russia and Belarus.