The poverty rate has declined for Hispanic, white and Asian children, but has remained steady for Black children, according to a new analysis released today by the Pew Research Center.
Overall, the number of American children living in poverty has declined since 2010 because of economic improvement, researchers found, but Black children remained four times as likely as white or Asian children to be living in poverty in 2013.
Among all children in the U.S., 14.7 million lived in poverty in 2013, down from 16.3 million in 2010. Poverty in 2013 was defined as a family of four (two children) living in a household with an annual income below $23,624.
For the first time in U.S. Census history there are more impoverished Black children (4.2 million) than impoverished white children (4.1 million), although there are also more than three times as many white children as Black children in the country today.
Related: Being Poor Affects Kids' Brains, Study Finds
Hispanic children living in poverty top the charts in terms of total numbers with 5.4 million defined as impoverished - more than any other group, and true since 2008. The Hispanic population, the report notes, is larger and younger than any other minority group.
