See the User's Guide for details. For example, while the average state wage has increased faster than the cost of living, pay in the poorest communities has fallen behind, forcing some workers to work multiple jobs and creating more stress in their families. For its fifth edition, Kids Count NH examined the demographics, economic security, health, education and safety of children and families.
Poverty affects all areas of a child's development.
Kids Count began making that connection in its 1996 books, when it sorted communities into five economic clusters based on their relative wealth. Bow, Canterbury and Hopkinton appear in the wealthiest cluster. Barnstead, Boscawen, Bristol, Franklin, Laconia, Moultonboro, Pittsfield and Tilton are in the poorest. This year's report plots those clusters against a wide variety of factors, including single-parent births, welfare dependency, infant death rate, dropout rates, and abuse and delinquency cases. The resulting data is tied to the Children's Agenda reforms released in January by the New Hampshire Child Advocacy Network.