A child living in a wealthy U.S. family is on average, better off financially than the typical wealthy child in any other country. At the same time, the average child in a low-income U.S. family is worse off than the average poor child in 15 other industrialized countries. One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night. In the U.S. hunger and race are related. Poverty is becoming more prevalent among young people.
Young children are more likely to be poor than any other age group, and that disparity is growing.
The poverty rate for children under age three was well over double the rate for adults or the elderly in 1995. Young children in the United States have about a 50-50 chance of escaping the risks of poverty or near poverty. The problem of young child poverty extends far beyond the stereotypical image of the poor minority child in an urban setting. The fact that nearly half of all young children live in poverty or near poverty demonstrates that young child poverty is a mainstream problem, affecting children from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, from all types of residential areas, and from all regions of the United States. The rate of poverty for children under age three living in suburban areas grew by 61 percent between the late 1970s and early 1990s, whereas the rates of poverty for children in the same age group in urban and rural areas rose by 37 and 47 percent respectively.