Missouri and the Nation Children and Youth Under Age 18 Below Poverty Level in Missouri and the U.S. According to the 2000 Census 15.3 percent (212,369) of Missouri children (under age 18) were living in a household with an income below the federal poverty line. That places Missouri slightly below the 16.1 percent of children below the poverty line nationally. As shown in Table 1 Missouri ranked 30th among the states in proportion of children below the poverty line in 2000. (In Table 1 the rank order of states is calculated from lowest percentage of children below poverty line to the highest, e.g. New Hampshire with 7.3 percent ranks 1st and District of Columbia with 31.1 percent ranks 50th). Missouri's rank of 30th indicates there are 29 states with a lower percentage of children below the poverty line and 20 states and the District of Columbia having a higher percentage of low-income children than Missouri. Missouri's rank (30th) did not change from 1990 although the proportion of children below the poverty line declined from 17.7 percent in 1990 to the 15.3 percent in 2000. That is similar to the change in other states. According to Table 2 there were 45 states in which the percent of children living the below the poverty line declined from 1990 to 2000. This was largely because of general improvement in the U.S. economy and low unemployment during the 1990s. Map 1 click map for larger version Table 1 shows that the top ranked 25 states were those in which the percent of children below the poverty line was less than 14.0 percent in 2000. Map 1 shows that those 25 states are concentrated in the North Central, Northeast and Mountain Regions. The map also shows the highest percentage of low income children is found in the South Central and Southwest regions, as well as a few additional high percentage states scattered in different regions such as Montana, West Virginia, New York, Kentucky and South Carolina. Missouri and Its Neighbors Of the eight states bordering Missouri four - Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas - have a lower percentage of low-income children than Missouri. The percentage in Iowa is 10.5 (ranks 6th), in Kansas it is 11.5 percent (ranks 12th), in Nebraska it is 11.8 percent (ranks 15th) and in Illinois the percentage is 14.0 percent (ranks 26th). Conversely, four of Missouri's neighboring states have a higher percentage of children below the poverty line, beginning with 21.4 percent in Arkansas (ranks 46th), 20.4 percent in Kentucky (ranks 44rd), 19.1 percent in Oklahoma (ranks 41th) and 17.6 percent in Tennessee (ranks 36th). Detailed Tables Children Under Age 18 Below Poverty 2000 for All U.S. States HTML PDF Children Under Age 18 Below Poverty 1990 for All U.S. States HTML PDF Percent of Children Under 18 Below Poverty 2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Percent of Children Under 18 Below Poverty 1990, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Change in Children Under 18 Below Poverty, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States    HTML PDF Percent Change in Children Under 18 Below Poverty, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States    HTML PDF Change in Percent of Children Under 18 Below Poverty, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States    HTML PDF