In 1993, nearly 28 percent of children in the United States were below the official poverty line (SPM).
In 2019, that figure had decreased to around eleven percent.
Many different factors have played a role in reducing child poverty. Among other things, it entails more single mothers now being able to work, that the number of teenage mothers has decreased, and that more children now live in households with two present parents.
The analysis comes from a report compiled by the analysis institute Child Trends. The measure they used to define poverty is the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). A household, with two adults and two children, that earns less than 28,881 dollars per year (about 300,000 kroner) is then judged to live in poverty.
A pleasing detail in the report is that child poverty has decreased in all groups. Even in the most vulnerable groups such as migrants and those living in the poorest areas of the United States, poverty fell as much as in groups with slightly better conditions.
Kent Olofsson
