25% of State's Kids In Poverty, Study Says

Hearst Newspapers 24feb01

Washington -- One of every four California children live in poor families, placing the state's child poverty rate among the industrialized world's highest, according to a study released yesterday.

California ranked second only to New York in the Syracuse University survey that examined child poverty in the United States, Canada, Europe and Russia. Of children under 18 in California, 25.7 percent live in low-income homes, according to the study.

"Some fraction of those are immigrants, but a large part of (poor families) are African Americans and Anglos working for low wages," said Timothy Smeeding,

co-author of the study, Child Well-Being, Child Poverty and Child Policy in Modern Nations. "Compared to the high incomes in lots of parts of California, there is a lot of rural poverty in the Central Valley and farming districts."

The study defines the poverty level as half of the net median income level in a state or nation -- a different standard than used in federal poverty guidelines. It estimated the poverty level in California between 1995-97 at around $20,000 -- significantly higher than the federal poverty line of around $16,000 for a family of four in 1996 and 1997.

Meanwhile, New York leads the industrial world with a 26.3 percent child poverty rate, the study indicates. But unlike New York, California is not among the 11 states in the nation that supplement the federal earned-income tax credit with additional tax breaks -- another factor contributing to the state's high rate of child poverty.

Nationwide, about 1 of every 5 children lives in poverty, ranking the United States behind Canada and Europe. In Canada, the child poverty rate was 14.7 percent. Most European nations were even lower: Only 2.5 percent of Sweden's youngsters live in poverty, and 8.7 percent in Germany.

Russia claimed the highest national rate of impoverished children at 23.2 percent -- just below California and New York.

The survey examined poverty rates in all 50 states between 1995-97.

• Timothy M. Smeeding
  Director, Center for Policy Research
  Maxwell Professor of Public Policy
  Professor of Economics and Public Administration
  Director, Luxembourg Income Study