Children of Foreign Born Parents (2014)

Recently the Urban Institute released an article on the numbers of children with at least one foreign born parent. Below I've provided similar numbers for the state, as well as Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

A Glimpse of Children in the Region by Household Type

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Comparison of Children in Poverty 1990 Versus 2013

Recently I posted about regional children living in poverty. In that post I introduced the concepts of people living in "near poverty, "in poverty" and in "deep poverty".

"Near poverty" identifies, in this case, children under the age of 18 who live in a family where the poverty level is between 150% and 101% of poverty. So technically they are not in poverty at this time, but considered to be on the edge of poverty, or "near" poverty.

"In poverty" is for children where their family level of income is between the actual the poverty level (100% of the poverty income level) and 51% of the poverty income level.

Children in "deep poverty" are those where families are at 50% or less of the poverty levels. For these families, they are a long ways from getting out of poverty, hence the idea that they are seen as being in "deep" poverty.

The previous post just took a look at the current percentage of children in the two county area that live at each of these poverty levels. In order to provide a bit more context, here is some data that covers the regional MSA (Herkimer and Oneida Counties combined), New York State, and the United States for the years 1990 and 2013 for children in poverty. Each has seen an increase in levels of poverty pretty much across the board.

Please NOTE: In order to get the percentage of children living in poverty as more traditionally defined, you would simply add the percentages of the bottom two segments on the graph below - that is, add the percent of those in "deep poverty" to the percent "in poverty". 

Regional Children in Poverty: Kids In "Near Poverty", "In Poverty" and In "Deep Poverty"

We often talk about people, and especially children, in poverty. Not all levels of poverty are seen the same. Most government measures of poverty identify three levels, or depths, of poverty: "near poverty", "in poverty", and "deep poverty".

"Near poverty" identifies, in this case, children under the age of 18 who live in a family where the poverty level is between 150% and 101% of poverty. So technically they are not in poverty at this time, but considered to be on the edge of poverty, or "near" poverty.

"In poverty" is for children where their family level of income is between the actual the poverty level (100% of the poverty income level) and 51% of the poverty income level.

Children in "deep poverty" are those where families are at 50% or less of the poverty levels. For these families, they are a long ways from getting out of poverty, hence the idea that they are seen as being in "deep" poverty.

The graphic below shows depth of poverty among all children age 17 and under in the region. While a total of around 27% are actually below poverty, you can see how a large portion of the 27% are in deep poverty (11%). In addition, another 16.0% are hovering near poverty.

Characteristics of Children By Household Types in Herkimer County

The following graphics were all based on the 2013 Five Year Estimates of the American Communities Survey (Table S0901) for Herkimer County as a whole. The focus for the most part is on children in one of three types of households: Married Couple households, Single Dad households, and Single Mom households.

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Tracking Poverty By Age Group: 1970 to 2010

A recent article I read about poverty suggests that while the "war on poverty" has been successful, it has somewhat stagnated as well. During President Johnson's term in office, the war on poverty helped raise millions above the poverty line: the poverty rate dropped from 23 percent to 12 percent.

But where do we stand today? The government's official measure of poverty shows that poverty has actually increased slightly since the Johnson administration, rising from 14.2 percent in 1967 to 15 percent in 2012.

Interestingly, information from the Columbia Population Research Center shows how national poverty rates have changed over time since the late 1960s, and in particular how these have changed for various age groups as well. They specifically looked at poverty rates among children, working age population, and the elderly over the last 45 years or so. Below is a graph showing the poverty rates for each of those age groups since 1967.

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This chart suggests that the poverty rate for the elderly has fallen, as has child poverty rates, since 1967. But the working-age poverty rate has stayed flat for 40 years. It dropped from 20 percent in 1967 to about 15 percent in 1974, and remains there today.

Locally, the patterns are a bit different, as seen below.

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In both counties, poverty rates among the elderly do appear to have fallen over the last 40 years, similar to national data trends. However, poverty among children, those under the age of 18, has risen and risen sharply particularly since 1990. And while national poverty rates among those of "working age" (between 18 and 64)has been relatively stagnant, regionally these rates have seen a steady climb since 1970.

The Cost of Raising A Child According to the USDA

According to the NY State Vital Statistics for 2011 (the most recent year for which data is available), more than 3,300 babies were born to moms in the combined Herkimer and Oneida Counties region. The cost of raising a child extends well beyond the delivery room of course, and according the the U.S. Agriculture Department, typically runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars until the child reaches the age of legal majority.

The USDA recently released its annual report, Expenditures on Children by Families, also known as the Cost of Raising a Child. The report shows that a middle-income family with a child born in 2012 can expect to spend about $241,080 ($301,970 adjusted for projected inflation) for food, shelter, and other necessities associated with child-rearing expenses over the next 17 years. This represents a 2.6 percent increase from 2011. Expenses for child care, education, health care, and clothing saw the largest percentage increases related to child rearing from 2011. However, there were smaller increases in housing, food, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses during the same period. The 2.6 percent increase from 2011 to 2012 is also lower than the average annual increase of 4.4 percent since 1960. 

They offer the following infographic as a means of understanding how these costs are spread out over the lifetime of a child.