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The Carsey Institute:
While the nationwide poverty rate remained stagnant, the situation became worse throughout rural, non-metro America.
"Many of the headlines are saying that poverty levels have not increased, but unfortunately trends are worse for rural children," Cynthia M. Duncan, Director of the Carsey Institute, said.
"Clearly many rural families, especially in the South, are struggling to support their families and rural children are paying the price, growing up in poverty with bleak futures.
The fact that almost 40 percent of children in rural Mississippi are living in poverty is a terrible indictment of our social policies."
The child poverty rate is the most widely used indicator of child well-being since poverty is closely linked to undesirable outcomes in health, education, emotional welfare, and delinquency.
"The new figures released by the Census Bureau today indicate that children growing up in rural America continue to have higher poverty rates than their counterparts in urban America," William O'Hare, Visiting Senior Fellow at the Carsey Institute said.
The nationwide rural/non-metro child poverty rate was 22.5 percent compared to the total nationwide child poverty rate of 18.5 percent in 2005, according to the ACS.
The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire conducts research and analysis into the challenges facing rural families and communities in New Hampshire, New England, and the nation.
Posted on October 10, 2006 07:13 PM
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