Growing Up Latino in America Today
The 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book is out, and it reveals some sobering facts-of-life about growing up Latino in the United States.
The cut-to-the-chase message? The gap between America’s economically secure and financially fragile families is widening — and Latinos are falling, at a disproportionate rate, on the harsher side of this divide.
Here’s what the 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book tells us about Latino children today:
- 42% live in single-parent families.
- 24% live in high-poverty areas.
- 35% — more than any other racial or ethnic group — live in a household headed by someone without a high-school diploma.
- 37% live in a household where no parent has a year-round, full-time job.
- 47% live in households with a high housing cost burden.
- 63% of 3- and 4‑year-olds do not participate in pre‑K programs.
- 12% lack health insurance.
- More than 80% fail to read at a proficient level in 4th grade.
- Nearly 80% fail to score proficient in math in 8th grade.
The 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book also identifies some areas of real gains for the Latino community. These include:
- Unemployment rates that have nearly bounced back to pre-recession levels.
- The lowest birth rate — 42 births for every 1,000 teen girls — ever recorded for Latino teens.
- A 6‑percentage point improvement in math scores among 8th graders.
- Lower death rates for both teens and children relative to national averages.
- More children born at a healthy weight relative to other racial and ethnic groups.
Head to the 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book for an even bigger-picture view of what it’s like to be a Latino kid in America today.
See a breakdown of poverty rates by race and Hispanic-origin.
