Expanded safety net has sharply cut child poverty since 1993; new report has state-level data

"For a generation or more, America’s high levels of child poverty set it apart from other rich nations, leaving millions of young people lacking support as basic as food and shelter amid mounting evidence that early hardship leaves children poorer, sicker and less educated as adults. But with little public notice and accelerating speed, America’s children have become much less poor," Jason DeParle, a longtime poverty reporter, writes for The New York Times.

"A comprehensive new analysis shows that child poverty has fallen 59 percent since 1993, with need receding on nearly every front," DeParle reports. "Child poverty has fallen in every state, and it has fallen by about the same degree among children who are white, Black, Hispanic and Asian, living with one parent or two, and in native or immigrant households. . . . In 1993, nearly 28 percent of children were poor, meaning their households lacked the income the government deemed necessary to meet basic needs. By 2019, before temporary pandemic aid drove it even lower, child poverty had fallen to about 11%."

The analysis by nonprofit Child Trends, noted that pandemic aid such as the expanded child tax credit spurred the trend. But even so, "More than eight million children remained in poverty, and despite shared progress," DeParle reports. "Black and Latino children are about three times as likely as white children to be poor. With the poverty line low (about $29,000 for a family of four in a place with typical living costs), many families who escape poverty in the statistical sense still experience hardship."