Research Shows That An Unprecedented Drop In Child Poverty Rates

Probono Australia

Children living in poverty need help because they don’t have access to the many comforts in life such as food, shelter, clothing, and most importantly, quality education. Sometimes they don’t have the latter because they can’t get quality schools nearby, their parents are unable to afford the high fees for school, or sometimes these children need to work.

It’s been a tough past for many of these children. They deserve to live life to the fullest and to enjoy the things that youth affords them. Unfortunately, many of them weren’t born with a silver spoon. The good thing is that there are organizations dedicated to helping them and to opening the doors of opportunity for them.

However, the past quarter century has been kinder to these young ones. Many have become a witness to an unparalleled decline in the rates of child poverty rates for the United States. Presently, around 1 in 10 children live in families whose economic resources are below the poverty line. This shows a 59 percent decline in the past 26 years.

The decline began in 1993. Back then, the statistics showed that more than one in four children were living in what was considered poverty. This surprising yet hopeful change is considered to be unequaled in the history of poverty measurement, and this was in the United States alone.


What happened to make this impressive decline in child poverty happen? A report from a research group called Child Trends took a closer more detailed approach to the situation.

According to the Census Bureau, the poverty threshold is defined “as the income below which families do not have sufficient resources to meet their basic needs.” The current state of the threshold remains to be critical frame of reference for debates and talks regarding poverty, but many still think that an income at or just above the current threshold still doesn’t give them access to meet basic needs. This also won’t allow them to save for when the unexpected happens nor are they able to make investments that could improve their future economic security. While they may belong to the group that’s found above the threshold, this doesn’t necessary mean that they have enough resources needed to meet even their most basic requirements.

Then, there’s also the lower unemployment rates and higher single mothers’ labor force participation. These are part of the results seen, but the economic factors can’t vouch for all of these.


Another factor that played a role is the configuration of the families. Included here is the decrease in the amount of children in immigrant families, lower rates of pregnant teens, and the increase in the number of children who belong to two-parent households.

It’s also good to note that the highest increases were brought about by the two social safety net programs: the Earned-Income Tax Credit and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The report was able to make a hopeful conclusion and said that between 1993 to 2019, poverty rates were declining at the same rates for nearly each subgroup of children they looked into. Part of this were children in immigrant families and those who belonged to non-immigrant families. Also included were the Asian/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander children, Black children, Hispanic children, White children, and for those living in both two-parent families and zero or one parent families.

The Child Trends’ report is a good reminder for all, and it tells people that no matter how gloomy the mainstream media wants to present the world, society hasn’t stopped getting better.

 

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