The Children’s Defense Fund – New York’s County Data Profiles provide an in-depth, county-level look at a variety of child well-being indicators in New York. Utilizing data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, these Profiles illuminate racial, ethnic and economic disparities and inequities across all 62 New York counties. Understanding these data trends – and the narratives they tell – is integral to ensuring every New York child has a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and a successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.
Child Poverty
Child poverty is an urgent crisis in New York State. A higher percentage of children live in poverty in New York than in 34 other states. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, one in five New York children lived in poverty – nearly 792,000 children. New York’s 15th congressional district, located in the Bronx, carries the highest child poverty rate of any of our nation’s congressional districts. Racial disparities are pervasive in our State’s child poverty burden, with Black and Hispanic children more than twice as likely as white children to live in poverty in New York. In over 75 percent of our State’s counties, both Black and Hispanic children are more likely to live in poverty than white children, and Black and Hispanic children in Manhattan are 10 to 13 times more likely to live in poverty than white children.
Our Child Poverty County Data Profiles analyze American Community Survey 5-Year Detailed Estimates to examine the number and percentage of children living in poverty in every County in New York, as well as the racial disparities that are far too prevalent in New York’s child poverty. Our Profiles also quantify the exorbitant financial costs of child poverty to our State and its Counties.