2010
One of the statistics that is not seen by our maps is the amount of children living in poverty in the United States. America may be one of the largest economies of the world, but has a level of childhood poverty only passed by Romania. America ranks 34th out of 35 industrial nations in its level of childhood poverty (Edelman).
According to childrensdefense.org, there are 14.7 million poor children and 6.5 million extremely poor children living in this country. This exceeds the populations of 12 U.S. states combined. One out of two of these poor children are African American and the younger they are, the poorer they are.
What is astonishing is that to reduce child poverty by 60% we would need to only spend $77 billion, or 2% of our national budget. Considering that every year $500 billion is lost due to health and crime costs for adults who grew up poor, the decision to spend money to help children would seem to be simple for such an affluent country, and yet it is not done. Closing tax loopholes that allow U.S. corporations to avoid $90 billion in federal income taxes each year would allow children a chance at a better life (Edelman).
According to the U.S. census data for 2010, more than one in five children lived in poverty and the number and percentage of children living in poverty increased in twenty-seven states. This is the highest rate of child poverty since the ACS survey began in 2001 (Census).
Works Cited
“Child Poverty in the United States 2009 and 2010: Selected Race Groups and Hispanic Origin.” Census.gov. n.p. November 2011. Web. December 9, 2015. https://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-05.pdf
Edelman, Marian. “A Call to End Child Poverty Now”. Childrensdefense.org. n.p. n.d. web. December 9, 2015. http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/child-watch-columns/child-watch-documents/acalltoendchildpovertynow.html