Child Poverty Rates in the U.S.: Changes Over Time and Space

Carla Shoff, Pennsylvania State University
Diane K. McLaughlin, Pennsylvania State University

The focus of this paper is to analyze the changes in county-level child poverty rates across time and to investigate the spatial distribution of the change in child poverty rates using county-level data from the 1990 and 2000 decennial census and the 2006-2008 American Community Survey estimates. This paper will (1) describe the geographic distribution of changes in child poverty rates across counties in the United States, (2) explore factors associated with the change in child poverty rates, concentrating on changes in family composition, racial and ethnic composition, educational attainment, and economic restructuring, (3) examine whether the factors associated with change in child poverty differ across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties, and (4) identify geographical areas where child poverty rates have increased or decreased over time.