Salt of the Earth: statistics of interest

Stat house
June 2000

Childhood: it's not just for Elian anymore
Now that Elian Gonzalez may finally be moving off the front pages of U.S. newspapers, Salt of the Earth wondered how other U.S. children who don't enjoy quite so much media attention are faring. This is what we found out:

Other stats:

Capital punishment

Environment

Homelessness

Welfare reform

Our booming prisons

Disappearing health care

Refugees worldwide

Misc. stats

Back to Stat house main

Child poverty: There are 13.5 million children living in poverty in the U.S.; 4.6 million of them are under age six. In 1997, approximately one in ten young children in the United States were extremely poor—10.4 percent—in families with a combined family income below 50 percent of the poverty line.

After a fairly steady 15-year increase in the number of young children (under age six) in poverty from 3.2 million in 1978 to 6.4 million in 1993, that number decreased to 4.6 million in 1998. The young child poverty rate (YCPR) —defined as the percentage of children under age six who live in families with a combined income below the federal poverty line—declined to 20.2 percent in 1998 from a high of 26.2 percent in 1993. This recent decrease came after a 52 percent increase in the YCPR between 1978 and 1993.

About half of the 4.6 million young children living in poverty in 1998 lived in extreme poverty.

The poverty rate for young children remains far higher than that for any other age group. It continues to exceed the rate for older children, ages 6 through 17, and is more than double the rate for adults, ages 18 through 64, and the elderly, ages 65 and above. America's youngest children are more likely to live in poverty than Americans in any other age group.

The young child poverty rate has grown among all racial and ethnic groups, and in urban, suburban, and rural areas. While the young child poverty rate is higher in cities (30 percent) than suburbs (16 percent), the rate of growth of the young child poverty rate from 1975-79 to 1993-97 was much greater in the suburbs (50 percent) than in the cities (31 percent). The rate of growth was also much higher among whites (25 percent) than African Americans (18 percent).

The United States' young child poverty rate is substantially higher—often two-to-three times higher—than that of other major Western industrialized nations.

While the young child poverty rate is highest for African American (40 percent) and Latino (38 percent) young children, by international standards it is also exceptionally high for white young children (13 percent).

Forty-two percent of all children under age six live in or near poverty, in families with incomes below 185 percent of the poverty line.

For more information on child poverty:
Coumbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty

Childhood hunger: Approximately four million American children under age 12 go hungry and about 9.6 million more are at risk of hunger according to estimates based on the results of a comprehensive study conducted by the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP).

Based on the results of over 5,000 CCHIP surveys of families with incomes below 185 percent of poverty, applied to the best available national data, the Food Research and Action Center estimates that approximately 13.6 million children under age 12 in the United States—29 percent—live in families that must cope with hunger or the risk of hunger during some part of one or more months of each year.

Hunger in the U.S.—a report from FRAC

Child nutrition: American children are getting 40 percent of their calories from extra fat and added sugars and are routinely failing to meet national dietary recommendations, according to an analysis reported by National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers. Only 1 percent of children between 2 and 19 years old met all the Food Pyramid recommendations for grains, vegetables, fruits, meats, and dairy foods. Sixteen percent of children met none of the recommendations

Health care coverage: More than 66 percent of U.S. children under 18 were covered by private insurance in 1997; 61 percent of children under 6 were also covered by private insurance.

More than 18.4 percent of children under 18 were covered by Medicaid; 24.1 percent of children under 6 were covered by Medicaid.

Fourteen percent of children under 18 had no medical coverage of any kind, and 12.5 percent of children under 6 also had no medical coverage.
See health Care Coverage and Major Federal Programs.

Child care: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 1995 there were approximately 21 million infants, toddlers, and preschool children under the age of six in the U.S.; more than 12.9 million of these children were in child care.

Forty-five percent of children under age one were in child care on a regular basis. While use of center-based care increased from 1988 to 1993, most young children are still in a home-based setting, including family child care.

Head Start: In 1999, Head Start served over 835,000 children at a cost of $4.66 billion.Head Start still only reaches slightly less than half of eligible preschool-age children.

According to a 1996-97 survey, about 38 percent of Head Start families needed full-day, full-year services, but only 7 percent of children attended programs that operated year-round; virtually no programs operated on weekends; and only a few operated before 7 a.m. or after 5 p.m.

According to the Children's Defense Fund, the need for full-day, full-year services will continue to increase as more families are required to move from welfare to work.

Since its inception in 1965, Head Start has served more than 18 million children. Head Start serves the poorest children and families; the program is targeted to children whose families are below the poverty line ($13,300 a year for a family of three in 1997). Local programs are allowed to serve up to 10 percent of the children above the poverty line.

Action alert:
If you would like to join a campaign initiated by the Children's Defense Fund to urge Congress to support increased investments in Child Care, Head Start, and After-School in the FY2001 Budget, visit CDF's "Take action" page.

Latchkey kids: According to the Bureau of the Census, in 1997 there were 38.8 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 years living in the U.S. There are approximately 24 million school-age children with parents in the workforce or pursuing education.

Experts estimate that nearly 5 million school-age children spend time as latchkey kids without adult supervision during a typical week. Approximately 1.7 million children in kindergarten through grade 8 were enrolled in 49,500 formal before-and/or after-school programs in 1991, according to the National Study of Before and After School Programs.

In 1993-94, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 18,111 before- or after-school programs in public schools—70 percent of public schools did not offer extended learning programs.

School-age children are likely to spend time in many different care arrangements. According to the National Child Care Survey (1990), 76 percent of school-age children with an employed mother spend time in at least two child care arrangements during a typical week, in addition to their time in school.

According to the National Child Care Survey, children aged 5 to 12 with employed mothers use the following types of supplemental care: 7 percent are in family day care; 14 percent are in centers, 3 percent are cared for by in-home providers, 25 percent are cared for by relatives and 44 percent do not use supplemental care.

Children under adult supervision in a formal program during after-school hours have demonstrated improved academic achievement and better attitudes toward school than their peers in self- or sibling care.

Youth are at greatest risk of violence after the regular school day. Youth between the ages of 12 and 17 are most at-risk of committing violent acts or being victims between 2 pm and 6 pm—a time when they are not in school.

The most frequently mentioned barrier to participation is the parents' inability to pay the tuition and fees charged by programs. Other barriers include availability, quality of activities, inadequate facilities, transportation, high staff turnover, hours of the program and lack of resources.

Child homicide and violence: American children are dying by suicide, homicide and gunfire at a greater rate than children in 25 other industrialized nations, according to a 1997 Center for Disease Control study.

The study showed homicide rates are five times higher, suicide rates are double and firearm death rates are 12 times higher in the United States than in the other countries.

In 1994, homicide was the third-leading cause of death for U.S. children aged 5 to 14 and fourth-leading cause for children 1 to 4. The CDC compared childhood death statistics with figures from 25 other countries that had similar economies and a population of at least 1 million. Even if firearms-related homicides were excluded, the United States had a homicide rate for children almost four times the other countries' rate, the CDC said. Guns were the primary cause of homicide among children in Finland, Israel, Australia, Italy, Germany and England. No children died from guns in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Singapore, Japan and Kuwait, the CDC said.

Child neglect and abuse: National child abuse and neglect statistics reported by states continued to decline to just over 900,000 children in 1998. The incidence rate of children victimized by maltreatment also declined to 12.9 per 1,000 children, the lowest record in more than 10 years.

Based on data reported by states, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that child protective service agencies received about 2,806,000 referrals of possible maltreatment in 1998. Of the 66 percent of those referrals investigated, states found that there were an estimated 903,000 children who were victims of abuse and/or neglect. In a trend which began five years ago, the number of children abused and neglected has decreased approximately 11 percent from a record 1,018,692 in 1993.

Parents continue to be the main perpetrators of child maltreatment. More than 80 percent of all victims were maltreated by one or both parents. The most common pattern of maltreatment (45 percent) was a child victimized by a female parent with no other perpetrators.

Victims of physical and sexual abuse, compared to victims of neglect and medical neglect, were more likely to be maltreated by a male parent acting alone.

More than half of all victims (54 percent) suffered neglect, while almost a quarter (23 percent) suffered physical abuse.

Nearly 12 percent of the victims were sexually abused. The number of child fatalities caused by maltreatment remained unchanged at about 1,100.In 1998, an estimated 1,118 children died from "maltreatment" in the United States —U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Back to page top

Back to page top