Poverty & Economic Well-being

Childhood poverty—especially deep poverty, persistent poverty, and poverty during the earliest years of life—can negatively affect nearly every dimension of child development and well-being, including physical and mental health, social and emotional development, academic outcomes, and eventual labor market success. Despite a steep decline (by 59%) in child poverty from 1993 to 2019, the number of children living in families with insufficient resources to meet their basic needs remains too high.