Child Poverty More than Doubled in 2022

Child poverty came roaring back in 2022, according to U.S. government figures released today, more than doubling to over 12% and erasing the last bits of progress achieved during the nation’s pandemic emergency.

In 2022, nearly 9 million children — or 12.4% of all U.S. children — lived in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), a 7.2 percentage point increase over the previous year. The SPM includes government assistance such as tax credits, income support and nutrition assistance. In 2021, such supports drove child poverty in the U.S. to its lowest level in history. Today’s Census figures estimate that refundable tax credits lifted 3.5 million children out of poverty in 2021.

Read More
First Focus
COVID-19 pushing poverty numbers higher

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2020 — Today’s reintroduction of the Child Poverty Reduction Act of 2020 has come just in time.

The Child Poverty Reduction Act of 2020 (S. 4115/H.R. 7419), put forward by Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), commits to cutting child poverty in half in 10 years, just as the pandemic pushes child poverty toward record levels. The legislation also creates national, evidence-based benchmarks and monitoring to hold lawmakers accountable.

The U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, led by First Focus Campaign for Children, and a dozen of its members applaud the bill’s introduction.

“Child poverty is the shame of our nation,” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus Campaign for Children. “There is no reason that the richest country on earth should have one of the highest child poverty rates. In addition to being a flat-out moral failure, our reluctance to end child poverty also limits our country’s economic, social, and cultural future.”

Child poverty has remained stubbornly high in the U.S. despite strong employment and economic figures. Before the pandemic, child poverty afflicted nearly 12 million children, or 16 percent — higher than nearly any other industrialized nation. Research from Columbia University predicts that the outbreak and its economic fallout could increase child poverty by as much as 53 percent. Already, 40 percent of mothers with children under 12 reported in April they are struggling to put food on the table.

Children of color live in poverty at three times the rate of white children. And just as COVID-19 has taken a greater toll on Black, Hispanic, and Native American communities, the pandemic’s economic impact will disproportionately affect Black, Hispanic, and Native American children.

Read More
Cara Baldari
Child Poverty Action Group calls for national poverty targets

Data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau illustrates the failure of our government to lead on child poverty, which remains higher in the United States than in nearly all similarly developed countries. 

The U.S. Census Bureau found that 16.2 percent of children (11.9 million) were living in poverty in 2018 and that children are 54.4 percent more likely to live in poverty than adults.

The figures represent a marginal 1.2 percent decrease from 2017, the result of anti-poverty measures that are effective but severely underfunded or have limited eligibility. Programs including the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the National School Lunch Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), federal housing assistance, and others have successfully lifted millions of children out of poverty, despite subsisting on meagre annual budgets. With some structural changes and proper funding, these programs could make a larger dent in the shameful rate of child poverty in America.

Read More
Cara Baldari
Statement: CPAG Responds to OMB Proposal on New Poverty Calculation

This proposal seeks to change the rate of inflation used to calculate the poverty threshold for the Official Poverty Measure each year. The Official Poverty Measure is already unrealistically low and families living at the poverty line cannot meet their basic needs. A switch from the current measure of inflation to one that measures inflation at a lower level would mean that over time the poverty line, already inadequate, would become even less realistic and our official estimate of the number of children and families living in poverty would become even less accurate.

Read More
First Focus
We are morally obligated to help with economic growth

When the economy falters, job one is fixing it and other priorities must wait. Once it is back on track however, there is no excuse for failing to address urgent needs too long deferred. Especially when it is our children suffering. Though our economy remains far from perfect, opportunity beckons. A report from the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year found we have the opportunity to cut U.S. child poverty in half in the next decade. This moment may not come again in our lifetime.

Read More
First Focus
We can reduce child poverty

Today, one in five U.S. children grows up in poverty. That’s 14 million kids who simply do not get a fair chance at a bright future because they lack access to the quality education and other resources which others may take for granted.

Child poverty is not inevitable – we know that investing in high-quality early childhood education is one of the most effective ways to break the pervasive cycle of poverty and ensure equal opportunity for all families in America.

Read More
First Focus
We Know How to Cut Child Poverty in Half. Will We Do It?

Now, a two-year study by the nonpartisan National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) finds the annual cost of child poverty is $800 billion to $1.1 trillion, or 4 to 5.4 percent of the US gross domestic product. Equally important, the authors demonstrate that income poverty causes great harm to children and adults, particularly when it “occurs in early childhood or persists throughout a large portion of childhood.” That harm includes changes in brain structure, lower educational attainment, reduced adult earnings, and greater need for public assistance.

Read More
First Focus
On Child Poverty: Proposals to Limit Household Access to Effective Anti-poverty Programs Would Only Make It Worse

The U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, a coalition of child-focused organizations dedicated to reducing child poverty in the U.S., is very concerned by recent proposals from Congress and the Administration to weaken public assistance programs by imposing cuts, employment documentation requirements, irrational time limits, and other unnecessary government bureaucratic barriers.

Read More
First Focus
Is America Holding Out on Protecting Children's Rights?

Recently, I asked my 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old students what they thought all children need in order to grow up healthy and strong. They responded readily: Lots and lot of water. Fruits and vegetables. Love. Schools. Homes. Parents. A life. Stuff to play with. A 5-year-old went a step further: “Legos.” A 6-year-old snapped back. “Legos? You don’t need them, but you would want them.”

Read More
First Focus
Tax Credits: A Crucial Weapon in the Fight Against Child Poverty

If a topic like comprehensive tax reform could ever be the rage in Washington, now would be the moment. President Trump has pledged to deliver “big league” changes to taxes, particularly cutting corporate taxes. Standing room-only sessions on Capitol Hill have debated the previously obscure proposal for a ‘border-adjusted’ tax to boost American jobs.

Read More
First Focus
Lack of Progress on Child Poverty Reduction Prompts the Formation of New National Coalition

Amid alarming new Census data showing that nearly one in five children live below the federal poverty line, a coalition of national and state broad-based, child-focused organizations, has formed the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), a similar iteration of a group that successfully lobbied for policies that cut child poverty by half in the United Kingdom in 2009.

Read More
First Focus