Texas Teens Cover - Senate

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CHAPTER 1 JANUARY 2001
National and State Poverty Rates Under the Age of 18
If there is a single underlying factor that
permeates the variety of threats facing
America’s children in the next millennium, it
is poverty. Despite the enormous wealth of
the United States, and the stock-marketfueled
economic boom of the 1990s, our
child poverty rate is among the highest of all
advanced, industrialized nations.
From Ten Critical Threats to America’s
Children: Warning Signs for the Next
Millennium, a report by the National League of
Cities, National School Boards Association, Joe
DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, and Youth Crime
Watch of America, 1999.
With respect to Americans under the age
of 18, the census bureau data indicates
that the poverty rate has fluctuated by
small amounts, but has remained much
the same since 1970. The first section of
Table 1.5 below shows the total
population below the poverty line for
ages under 18 years by race and
ethnicity beginning with the year 1970.
Fluctuations in the poverty rate for this
group range from a low of 15.1 percent
in 1970 to a high of 22.7 percent in 1993.
The 1999 poverty rate for young people
was 16.9 percent, lower than in 1993 but
still higher than 1970. The poverty rate
in 1999 for black and Hispanic
youngsters is much higher than the national average, at 33.1 and 30.3 percent
respectively. Although the percentage for black children is extremely high, it has
decreased from a high of 46.6 percent in 1992. Those children of Hispanic origin
have a poverty rate that is lower than the high of 41.5 percent in 1994, but still
higher than it was in 1970. These numbers indicate that the booming U.S.
economy during the past five years has slightly reduced the poverty rate of the
nation’s young people from its highest level in the 1980s and the downward
trend is encouraging, but poverty levels for all children, and especially black and
Hispanic children, remain unacceptably high
Table 1.5
National Poverty Rate, Ages 0-18
by Race and Hispanic Origin:
1970-1998
1970 1980 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
All Races 15.1 18.3 20.6 21.8 22.3 22.7 21.8 20.8 20.5 19.9 18.9 16.9
White n.a. 13.9 15.9 16.8 17.4 17.8 16.9 16.2 16.3 16.1 15.1 13.5
White,
not Hispanic n.a. 11.8 12.3 13.1 13.2 13.6 12.5 11.2 11.1 11.4 10.6 9.4
Black n.a. 42.3 44.8 45.9 46.6 46.1 43.8 41.9 39.9 37.2 36.7 33.1
Hispanic Origin n.a. 33.2 38.4 40.4 40 40.9 41.5 40 40.3 36.8 34.4 30.3
Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1970, 1980, and 1990 Censuses, 1991-1998 Current Population Survey.
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