Nearly Half of America’s Poor Are Younger Than Age 25 - The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Nearly Half of America’s Poor Are Younger Than Age 25

Posted October 18, 2017
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation
Blog nearlyhalfofamericaspoor 2017

In 2016, 44.3 mil­lion indi­vid­u­als in the Unit­ed States lived in poverty.

This total is larg­er than the num­ber of res­i­dents liv­ing in the 12 most pop­u­lat­ed states — Cal­i­for­nia, Texas, New York, Flori­da, Illi­nois, Penn­syl­va­nia, Ohio, Geor­gia, North Car­oli­na, Michi­gan, New Jer­sey and Vir­ginia — combined.

Equal­ly star­tling: America’s youngest res­i­dents — any­one 24 years old or younger — account for near­ly 50% of the nation’s poor (32% are chil­dren; 14% are young adults ages 18 to 24).

At the fam­i­ly lev­el: Sin­gle-par­ent fam­i­lies are close to five times more like­ly to live in pover­ty than fam­i­lies with mar­ried par­ents. Nation­wide, 5.8 mil­lion fam­i­lies with relat­ed chil­dren — 16% of all fam­i­lies — lived in pover­ty in 2016.

The fed­er­al pover­ty line is con­sis­tent across the coun­try, but varies accord­ing to house­hold size and income. For instance: In 2016, two adults and two chil­dren lived in pover­ty if their annu­al house­hold income was $24,339 or less.

Access eco­nom­ic well-being data on the KIDS COUNT Data Center:

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