	Introduction

Child poverty persists as a social and economic concern in the United States. In 2007,12.8 million children were considered poor under the official U.S. Census Bureau definition. Family living arrangements, indicated by the presence of just one or both parents, greatly affect the chances that a child is poor. Children who are racial or ethnic minorities are at particular risk of being poor. Poverty affects children's life chances, their prospects of realizing their full potential, and their ability to successfully transition into adulthood. By almost any indicator, poor children fare worse than their nonpoor counterparts. Figure 2 presents data about poverty rates of children who lived in families in 2007. This is because Hispanic children are more likely than African-American children to be in married-couple families, and children in married-couple families have lower poverty rates than children in female-headed families. In 2007, about seven out of 100 children with such a worker were poor. Of children in single, female-headed families without an earner, 76.2% were poor. Younger parents, who have less job experience in the workforce, tend to earn less than older adults with more experience. In records dating back to 1959, the incidence of poverty among related children in families has ranged from a peak of 26.9% (1959) to a low of 13.8% (1969). From the mid-1990s to 2000, in the wake of the 1996 welfare reform law, the drop in the poverty rate was more pronounced for children in families headed by a lone mother than for children in families with a male present. The figure shows, for example, that in 2007 the child poverty rate was 17.6%, but had family composition in 2007 been the same as in 1960, the overall adjusted child poverty rate would have been 12.6%; instead of the observed 12.8 million children being counted as poor in 2007 had family composition remained unchanged from 1960, the number of poor children estimated by this method would have been 9.2 million, or 3.6 million fewer than the number observed. Rise in Work by Lone Mothers

Dramatic gains have occurred in recent years in work by lone mothers—especially among those with preschool age children. Employment rates of single mothers with infants or toddlers (under age 3) increased markedly from 1993 through 2000, rising from 35.1% to 59.1% over the period (see Figure 17 ). It stood at 32.4% in 2007. Work is the principal means by which families with children support themselves. Without family earnings, a child is almost certain to be poor. However, earnings alone often fail to overcome poverty. In 2006, one-third of all poor children lived with at least one adult who was a full-time, full-year worker. In contrast, the second tier of the "safety net," programs targeted to low-income families and persons, has undergone a radical transformation over the past 20 years. Need-tested assistance increasingly is paid to families only in the form of noncash benefits (Medicaid and food stamps) whose value is not reflected in the official child poverty statistics. Along with the transformation of need-tested benefits have come expansions of refundable tax credits for families with children, particularly the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
Child poverty persists as a social and economic concern in the United States. In 2007 12.8 million children (17.6% all children) were considered poor under the official U.S. definition. In records dating back to 1959, the incidence of poverty among related children in families has ranged from a peak of 26.9% in 1959 to a low of 13.8% in 1969. Poverty affects a child's life chances; by almost any indicator, poor children fare worse than their nonpoor counterparts.
Family living arrangements, indicated by the presence of just one or both parents, greatly affect the chances that a child is poor. In 2007, 43.0% of children in female-headed families were poor, compared to 8.5% of children in married-couple families. In that year, 24% of children were living in female-headed families, more than double the share who lived in such families when the overall child poverty rate was at its historical low (1969). Children who are racial or ethnic minorities are at particular risk of being poor. In 2007, a little more than one-third of black children (34.2%) and almost three out of ten Hispanic children (28.3%) were poor, compared to about one in ten white non-Hispanic children (9.7%).
Work is the principal means by which families with children support themselves. Without family earnings, a child is almost certain to be poor. However, earnings often fail to overcome poverty. In 2007, about one-third (32.4%) of all poor children lived with at least one adult who was a full-time, full-year worker; another one-third were in families with a worker who either worked part-year or (less likely) part-time; another third lived in families without an adult who worked during the year. Higher child poverty rates were observed for those whose parents had less, rather than more, education. Children of younger parents, with less potential time and experience in the workforce, were more likely to be poor than children of older parents. Additionally, dramatic gains have occurred in recent years in work by lone mothers—especially among those with preschool children. Employment rates of single mothers with children under age 3 rose from 35.1% in March 1993 to 59.1% in March 2000, but have since remained below their 2000 level, standing at 54.5% in March 2008. Nonetheless, many of these working single mothers (and their children) remained poor.
The social safety net for children consists of (1) earnings-based social insurance programs and (2) need-based transfers of cash and noncash benefits. Need-tested benefits have undergone a radical transformation during the past 20 years, capped by the 1996 welfare reform law. Cash welfare caseloads have plummeted since the reforms of the mid-1990s, so that many families receiving need-tested aid only receive noncash benefits (e.g., Medicaid and food stamps) whose value is not reflected in official poverty statistics. Further, the welfare reforms of the mid-1990s were accompanied by expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which supplements the earnings of low-income families with children. (The value of the EITC is also not considered in official poverty statistics.) The result has been to curtail benefit availability for nonworking families while raising the returns to work. This report will be updated annually, when new Census Bureau data are released.