The racial divide among American children in poverty: Reassessing the importance of neighborhood

Abstract

Census data have long indicated that black and Hispanic children in the United States are approximately two to three times more likely than white children to fall below the official poverty line. Yet this well established statistic masks a much higher differential in the incidence of ecological poverty between white and nonwhite children. This paper examines the extent of this racial/ethnic divide through an alternative and new metric of childhood neighborhood poverty. Data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census are used to estimate the percentage of white, black, and Hispanic children residing in high childhood poverty neighborhoods. Our results indicate that black children are up to 14 times more likely to live in a high childhood poverty neighborhood when compared to their white counterparts. In addition, for black children living below the poverty line, the majority will experience the double disadvantage of residing in a poor minority childhood neighborhood as well. Findings for Hispanic children are similar to those for black children, albeit slightly less pronounced.