Child Poverty Will Remain High, Analysis Predicts | First Focus

Child Poverty Will Remain High, Analysis Predicts | First Focus:

Child Poverty Will Remain High, Analysis Predicts
PRESS RELEASE

December 4, 2012

Contact:
Ed Walz
(202) 657-0685 (office)

Washington — A new report released today predicts 2012 national and state child poverty rates 10 months before the U.S. Census Bureau’s official measure, expected in September 2013. The new First Focus analysis, written by Urban Institute researchers Julia Isaacs and Olivia Healy, finds early signs of improvement, though the nation’s child poverty rate will remain high — with nearly one-fourth of all children living in poverty — as the recession continues to take a heavy toll on children and their families.

In The Recession’s Ongoing Impact on Children, 2012: Indicators of Children’s Economic Well-Being, Isaacs and Healy assess three key economic indicators of children’s well-being — the number of children living with an unemployed parent, the number who rely upon the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps) for food, and the number who live in poverty — and finds that:

• 2.7 million more children lived with an unemployed parent during a typical month in 2012, compared to 2007 (an increase of 71%), bringing the 2012 total to 6.3 million children;
• 2.8 million (44% of those living with an unemployed parent) lived, during a typical 2012 month, with a parent unemployed six months or longer;
• 8.8 million more additional children relied upon SNAP for food in 2012, compared to 2007, bringing the total number of children receiving SNAP to 21.6 million (one in four) nationwide;
• 16 million children (more than one in five) currently live in poverty; and
• The number of states that are high child poverty states (where more than one-in-five children live in poverty) has nearly doubled during the recession, from 14 in 2007 to 27 in 2011

“The numbers tell us two critical things: first, the recession continues to hit America’s children