One in Four CA Children May Live in Poverty This Year
850,000 More Children than in 2008
Jan. 6, 2010
PALO ALTO, Calif. – More than a quarter of California's children could be living below the stringent federal poverty level this year, according to projections from a Duke University study released by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health.
Available through http://www.kidsdata.org/index, the projections suggest that as many as 2.7 million California children may live in households where earnings are less than $22,000 per year for a family of four, an increase of about 850,000 children since 2008. Research shows that, on average, families in California need to earn at least twice the federal poverty level to cover their basic expenses.
Children in poverty are more likely to go hungry; reside in overcrowded or unstable housing; live in unsafe neighborhoods; and receive a poorer education. Low-income children tend to have less access to health care, child care and other resources, such as quality after-school programs, sports, and extracurricular opportunities. Poverty also is correlated with family violence, youth substance abuse and juvenile crime.
In Los Angeles County, which is home to about one-quarter of the state's children, the poverty rate is projected to jump from 22 percent in 2008 to 35 percent this year, meaning that more than one out of every three kids in Los Angeles County may live below the federal poverty level. In the six-county Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties), rates are expected to rise to 15-16 percent in 2010 from 8 -13 percent in 2008.
Even if the economy recovers in the next few years, the impact of the recession on children's well being will likely be lasting, as the projected percent of children living in poverty in 2012 still will be higher than before the downturn.
Duke University sociologist Dr. Kenneth Land created the projections, which were part of a broader study on child well-being released last month by the foundation . Land is the John Franklin Crowell Professor of Sociology and Demography at Duke University. He is noted for his scholarship and research on mathematical and statistical models in sociology, demography, criminology and social indicators/quality-of-life studies. For more information about this study and the methodology behind the poverty projections, visit www.kidsdata.org/index/.
The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health is a public charity whose vision is that all children in the communities it serves are able to reach their maximum health potential. For more information on the foundation, see www.lpfch.org.
Contact: Andy Krackov, senior director of public information, at (650) 736-0677 or andy.krackov@lpfch.org, if you have any questions.