Children in Poverty measures the percentage of related persons under age 18 living in a household that is below the poverty threshold. The poverty threshold established by the U.S. Census Bureau for a household of four people which includes two children living in the lower 48 states is $22,811 in household income. The ranks are based on the preceding year’s data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.

The effect of poverty on health has been clearly documented with higher rates of many chronic diseases and shorter life expectancy.[1]^-[2] Poverty’s effect on more vulnerable populations such as children is even greater. Poverty directly influences a family’s ability to meet the basic needs of their children including lack of access to health care, limited availability of healthy foods, constrained choices for physical activity, and limited access to educational opportunities. Children in poverty are roughly three times more likely to have unmet health needs than other children.[3] Growing up in poverty has many well documented negative health effects from birth to adulthood. Children born into poverty are more likely than other children to be low birthweight and die within the first month after birth.[4] As these children grow up they are more likely to engage in risky or unhealthy behaviors and are at a greater lifetime risk of many different health problems.[5]-[6] Due to the increase in poor health found in children in poverty, the estimated direct medical cost of children in poverty is $22 billion.[7] Existing government programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women Infants and Children (WIC) are designed to help alleviate some of the ill effects of poverty. However, participation in these programs is less than 100 percent and other efforts are needed. There are many other government programs and community interventions that have helped to reduce the number of children in poverty as well as the burden of poverty on children, yet poverty and its negative effects on health persist today.