Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
7 Figures: National Academies report on child poverty
7 Figures: National Academies report on child poverty
Jan 25, 2026 10:45 PM

In a massive new599-page study, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Board on Children, Youth, and Families produced a report on the costs of child poverty in the United States and the effectiveness of current efforts aimed at reducing poverty.

Here are seven figures from the report you should know:

1. In 2015, the latest year for which estimates were available, more than 9.6 million U.S. children (13.0 per cent) lived in families with annual es below a poverty line defined by the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). About 2.1 million children (2.9 per cent) lived in “deep poverty,” defined as having family resources below half of the poverty-based line.

2. Child poverty rates were much higher for Black children (18 percent) and Hispanic children (22 percent) than for non-Hispanic White children (8 percent); for children in single-parent families (22 percent) than for those in two-parent families (9 percent); for children in immigrant families (21 percent) than for those in non-immigrant families (10 percent); and for children in families with no workers (62 percent) than for those in families with part-time workers (28 percent) or with full-time workers (7 percent).

3. The two refundable tax credits—the EITC and the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit—are the most successful at alleviating poverty. The report estimates that the elimination of these tax credits would raise SPM child poverty to 18.9 percent, an increase of 5.9 percentage points or 4.4 million children. In the absence of SNAP benefits, the child poverty rate would have increased to 18.2 percent.

4. During the 1967–2016 period, child poverty rates varied with both business cycles and changes in social benefit programs. Government tax and transfer programs reduced child poverty modestly between 1967 and 1993, but they became increasingly important after 1993 because of increases in government benefits (mainly the Earned e Tax Credit) targeted at the poor and near-poor. Between 1993 and 2016, SPM poverty fell by 12.3 percentage points, dropping from 27.9 to 15.6 percent.

5. The decline in two-parent family structure is the single biggest factor associated with the increase in child (official) poverty between the mid-1970s and the early 1990s. However, child poverty has fallen since the early 1990s, despite continuing increases in single parenthood. This more recent decline in child poverty is most strongly associated with increases in maternal employment.

6. Men who grew up in poverty are twice as likely as adults to have been arrested, and among women early childhood poverty was associated with a six-fold increase in the likelihood of bearing a child out of wedlock prior to age 21.

7. Programs producing the largest reductions in child poverty are estimated to cost the most. Almost all of mittee-developed program options that lead to substantial poverty reduction were estimated to cost at least $20 billion annually.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Audio: Rev. Sirico on Faith, Politics and Joe Biden
Rev. Robert A. Sirico appeared on the Frank Pastore Show Oct. 15 to discuss Vice President Joe Biden’s claim that the HHS mandate was not a threat to religious liberty and the quick rebuke he received from the Catholic bishops. Rev. Sirico also discussed broad faith and policy themes, including how best to reduce poverty, in this hour-long program. Click the media player below to listen: [audio: ...
Sixpence to the Good (of Government)
This week I wrote about the dignity of paying taxes (among other ways of contributing to social flourishing). But as we know, not all taxes are created equal. Indeed, as Antony Davies and James Harrigan write this week at US News, “Politicians are in the business of buying votes with tax breaks and sweetheart deals for their preferred constituencies, and they have to offset these deals by taxing disfavored constituencies at increased rates. The longer this game is played, the...
ResearchLinks – 10.19.12
Working Paper: “The Eurozone Debt Crisis — The Options Now” Buchheit, Lee C. and Gulati, G. Mitu SSRN Working Papers, October 8, 2012 The Eurozone debt crisis is entering its third year. The original objective of the official sector’s response to the crisis — containment — has failed. All of the countries of peripheral Europe are now in play; three of them (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) operate under full official sector bailout programs. The prospect of the crisis engulfing the...
Must See Film for Entrepreneurs? ‘The Call of the Entrepreneur’
Entrepreneurs, in the words of Andreas Widmer, co-founder of The SEVEN Fund, are people who see “an additional color. Everybody sees chaos; they look out, they see chaos. An entrepreneur sees patterns.” They think differently. Kara Ohngren, at Entrepreneur, piled a list of ten documentaries to help entrepreneurs strive to make patterns out of chaos. Acton Media’s “The Call of the Entrepreneur” is featured. Why it’s a must-see:This doc is a non-stop barrage of uplifting tales. The inspiring story of...
Economy and Empowerment
George Weigel on why Americans respond positively to presidential aspirants who lift up “a vision of American possibility—prosperity linked to creativity, responsibility, and generosity”: A robust economy is not only an economic imperative; it is a moral and cultural imperative.A robust economy makes honorable work possible for all who wish to be responsible for their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. And work, according to Blessed John Paul II in the 1983 encyclicalLaborem Exercens, is an expression...
Mansa Musa and the Magic of the Free Market
A new study has produced an inflation-adjusted list of the richest people of all time. To give you an idea of just how rich the rich people on the list are consider that Sam Walton and Warren Buffett are the poorest guys to make the cut. The richest person in history, according to the study, was Mansa Musa I of Mali—an obscure 14th century African king. Musa, who made his fortune on salt and gold, would have an inflation-adjusted fortune...
On Consecrating the Entire Economic Order
Thanks to Fr. John A. Peck at the Preacher’s Institute for sharing this article with the PowerBlog. On Consecrating the Entire Economic Order By Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon St. Luke’s account of Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree (19:1-10) is a story rich in spiritual reflection; preachers and ing from a variety of backgrounds, have explored the narrative unto great profit for the education of the soul. A certain liturgical use of the text is particularly instructive; namely, the story of...
Samuel Gregg: Who’s Really Forgotten the Poor
On National Review Online, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg offers an analysis of last night’s debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney. Gregg begins with the assertion by Melinda Henneberger of the Washington Post that the candidates are ignoring poor and working-class Americans. Gregg responds: … what’s generally missing from the discussion of poverty in the context of this presidential election — though Romney did obliquely reference it in the second debate — is acknowledgment that: (1) the...
The Market Outlook for the Facts of the Matter
With two presidential debates and one vice presidential debate already behind us, fact-checkers across the nation must be pulling their hair out. A brief survey of factcheck.org sheds some important light on the many claims and figures that have been tossed around in the last two weeks, revealing little concern from either ticket for the facts of the matter. Why is this the case? And must we simply resign ourselves to this dismal state of affairs? Take a look at...
‘We are sick and tired of becoming the objects of development’
Too often, aid for the poor looks like this: A person, organization, or government notices a problem, decides upon a solution for the problem and implements it, with varying degrees of success. One step that is typically missing: no one consults the poor about the problem. No one asks, “Is this really a problem?” or “What do YOU think should be done about this problem?” Instead, an outside entity does it all. Rose Molokoane, a South African woman, is sick...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved