About 5.6% of children were uninsured and 16.1% of children lived in poverty in 2020, according to new reports from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The 2020 child poverty rate marks an increase from 14.4% in 2019. About 11.6 million children and adolescents under age 18 lived in poverty in 2020, an increase of 1.1 million from 2019.
Poverty is defined as having an annual income below $26,200 for a family of four.
The uninsured rate rose 1.6 percentage points from 2018. Estimates on health insurance coverage were compared to 2018 and not 2019 due to data collection challenges as a result of the pandemic.
Hispanic youths had the highest rates of being uninsured at 9.5%, followed by Black children at 6%. White and Asian uninsurance rates were 3.8% and 2.8%, respectively.
Among children living in poverty, 9.3% did not have health insurance at any time in 2020, an increase of 1.6 percentage points since 2018.
The official poverty rate in 2020 across all ages was 11.4%, compared to 10.5% the year before. This is the first increase in poverty after five consecutive annual declines, according to the Census Bureau.
In 2020, the median household income declined by 2.9% to $67,500.
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