Stats on US Childhood Poverty

Let’s get real here. Maybe you don’t care about adults, but what about children? Here are just a few of the US stats available from sites like JustHarvet.org:

<blockquote>Every 44 seconds a baby is born into poverty.

6% of children live in extreme poverty with household incomes below 50% of the poverty level ($9425 for a family of 4 in 2004).

Every fourth person standing in a soup kitchen line is a child.

More than 40% of low-income children live in households that are hungry or at risk of hunger.

Out of 23 industrialized countries, the U.S. was the only country with children under 5 suffering from underweight, wasting, and stunting in 2000.

Hungry children suffer two to four times as many health problems as those who are not and are more likely to be ill or absent from school. Hungry children are less likely to interact with other people or explore or learn from their surroundings. Hunger interferes with their ability to learn from an early age. Chronic hunger causes anxiety, low self-esteem and hostility in children.

More than half of all Food Stamp recipients are children.

Low-income children depend on the School Lunch Program for one-third to one-half of their daily nutrition.

40% of all clients using food banks or pantries are children.

More than 9 million children in the U.S. do not have health insurance.

In 2002, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) provided health insurance coverage for 47.6% of all low-income children (children living in families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line).

1 in 5 children have an untreated dental cavity. Children in low-income families are more than twice as likely to have untreated dental cavities and 20% more likely not to have had a dental visit in the past year.

Poor children are twice as likely as non-poor children to suffer stunted growth or lead poisoning or be kept back in school.</blockquote>