Almost 25% of children in St. Joseph County are living in poverty.
That’s according to the Kids Count in Indiana 2017 Data Book, which was compiled by the Indiana Youth Institute. A single-parent family with one child would be considered “in poverty” if its income is less than $16,000 a year, while a married couple with two children would have to earn less than $24,300 to fall into that category.
1 in 5 children in Indiana under the age of 18 are living in poverty, according to the study, while child poverty rates are highest among black children at nearly 42%, followed by Hispanics at 36%, and whites at 15%.
St. Joseph County ranked 75th out of Indiana’s 92 counties in child poverty. 24.5% of kids living in the county live below the poverty line. That’s just slightly less than LaPorte County’s rate of 24.7%. In Elkhart County, that figure drops to 19.4%. LaGrange and Kosciusko Counties have a poverty rate of 13.6% and 13.8% respectively. Marshall County has a 15% rate.
Find the full study here, with the county-by-county breakdown here.
1 comment
Take away these children’s parents welfare and watch how fast they go to work and get out of “poverty”. A good portion of these people live the way they want to. It is not because they have too! It is interesting that the black and Hispanic are the majority living in poverty. Probably caused by white people I’m sure. How about a headline that reads “75% of St Joseph County goes to work everyday and lives well”.