SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A report on childhood well-being shows improved overall chances for U.S. children to thrive based on broad measures of economic circumstances, education and community support.
Released Monday, the annual Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation also finds that the number of children living in poverty has swelled over the past three decades in fast-growing, ethnically diverse states such as Texas, Arizona and Nevada as the nation's population center shifts south and west.
About 18% of the nation's children live in poverty, down from 22% in 2010 during the Great Recession.
Since 1990, however, the national rate of childhood poverty has remained unchanged as the number of impoverished children swelled border and Southwest states.