Child Poverty in the United States
Exploring the causes and consequences of America’s growing inequality.
May 8, 2026
Eleven million children, out of the 74 million children residing in the United States, live in poverty.
One in six children under the age of five (which is to say, three million children) is poor — that is the highest rate of any age group.
Children constitute the poorest age group in the United States.
The burden of poverty falls disproportionately on children of color, as well as those under five years of age, those belonging to single mothers and those living in the South.
The South is home to roughly 47% of the children in the United States who live beneath the poverty threshold.
In 2023, Black, Hispanic and American Indian and Alaska Native children were about three times as likely as white children to fall below the poverty line.
Child poverty fell to a record low of 5.2% in 2021 — an achievement that was largely attributable to the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), which lifted over 700,000 Black children and 1.2 million Hispanic children out of poverty.
However, lawmakers opted not to extend the expansion of the CTC, and essentially all the gains in poverty reduction vanished the following year, pushing millions of Americans into poverty in 2022.
Since 2021, the child poverty rate has more than doubled — standing at 13.4% in 2024.
The United States consistently ranks among the highest for child poverty rates within the OECD and among wealthy nations.
Sources: Children’s Defense Fund, Center on Poverty and Social Policy, The Century Foundation, Confronting Poverty
Takeaways
Eleven million children, out of the 74 million children residing in the United States, live in poverty.
Since 2021, the child poverty rate has more than doubled — standing at 13.4% in 2024.
The United States consistently ranks among the highest for child poverty rates within the OECD and among wealthy nations.
