Child poverty has leveled off but remains higher than it was before the recession, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
In an analysis released with the data, Census researchers found the poverty rate for those under 18 hovered just below 22 percent. At least 1 in 5 American children have lived in poverty since 2009—the highest rate, by far, of any age group.
Researchers also found that children were the group most likely to be in deep poverty, which means living on less than half of the federal poverty line of $23,942 for a family of four.
Of 20.4 million Americans with income less than one-half of the poverty threshold, 7.1 million were under age 18. As of 2012, nearly 1 in 10 children lived in deep poverty and nearly 1 in 4 lived in families with incomes at 150 percent of the poverty line.
Poverty rates have been slowly dipping for Asian, black, and Hispanic children, though not for white children. Still, more than a third of Hispanic children, nearly 40 percent of black children, and nearly 19 percent of white children remain poor.
