States With Most Underprivileged Children

(KFRO NEWS  August 7, 2019)  With August being Child Support Awareness Month and the U.S. having the seventh highest child poverty rate among economically developed countries, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019’s States with the Most Underprivileged Children as well as accompanying videos.

Nebraska ranks 44th overall…the socio-economic welfare of children comes in 43rd…children’s health ranks 34th and education ranks 46th.

In order to bring awareness to the condition of underprivileged children throughout the U.S., WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 26 key measures of neediness. The data set ranges from share of children in households with below-poverty income to child food-insecurity rate to share of maltreated children.

Key Stats

• New Mexico has the highest child food-insecurity rate, 24.10 percent, which is 2.5 times higher than in North Dakota, the state with the lowest at 9.80 percent.
• Mississippi has the most infant deaths (per 1,000 live births), nine, which is 2.3 times more than in Massachusetts, the state with the fewest at four.
• West Virginia has the highest share of children in foster care, 1.76 percent, which is 6.8 times higher than in Virginia, the state with the lowest at 0.26 percent.
• Texas has the highest share of uninsured children aged 0 to 18, 11.00 percent, which is 7.9 times higher than in Massachusetts, the state with the lowest at 1.40 percent.
• Kentucky has the highest share of maltreated children, 2.21 percent, which is 13 times higher than in Pennsylvania, the state with the lowest at 0.17 percent.

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