Relative Child Poverty, Income Inequality, Wealth, and Health
I can't get access to the study itself, published in the new issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. But here's the abstract:
Eric Emerson, PhD
JAMA. 2009;301(4):425-426.
Child relative poverty (ie, children living in a household with relative income poverty) appears to be a potentially important indicator for children's health. Relative income poverty is commonly defined as having equivalized household income of less than 50% of the national median.1 Equivalization is calculated by dividing household income by an indicator of household composition or need, for example, the square root of the number of individuals living in the household.2 Child relative poverty is strongly related to overall income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient, which reflects inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth for the population of a nation; a lower Gini coefficient suggests more equal income or wealth distribution, whereas a high Gini coefficient reflects more unequal distribution of income and wealth.3 For instance, the United States has both the highest national wealth and the highest Gini coefficient.3 Thus, in the United States, as with many of the world's richest countries, there is little or no association between national wealth and the levels of income inequality evident within those nations.
The footnotes may be mixed into this but you get the idea:
- Child relative poverty (ie, children living in a household with relative income poverty) appears to be a potentially important indicator for children's health. Relative income poverty is commonly defined as having equivalized household income of less than 50% of the national median.
- Child relative poverty is strongly related to overall income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient, which reflects inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth for the population of a nation
Median Household Income in 2006 was $48,451. 50% of that median income is $24,225 per household.
That ranged from a low median of $34,473 in Mississippi [with a federal poverty rate of 21.1%] to a high of $65,144 in Maryland [with a federal poverty rate of 7.8%]. [source: http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-08.pdf.
Wisconsin's median HH income of $48,772 is the closest to the national median.
Looking at 4-person families, Median Household Income ranged from a low of $52,034 in New Mexico to a high of a $94,441 in New Jersey. [source: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/medincsizeandstate.html] 50% of $52,034 is $26,017, or 30% more than the 2006 Federal Poverty Guideline of $20,000 for a family of 4 [source: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/06poverty.shtml]. 50% of $94,441 is $47,220, or 236% of the FPG. [Far more people live in New Jersey than in New Mexico.]
Wisconsin's median income for a family of 4 was $72,495, or 362% of the FPG. Wisconsin's federal poverty rate in 2006 was 14.6%.
What about children and poverty? Here's the data, from the 2006 American Community Survey via American Factfinder.
....................................................Under Age 6 ..... 6 to 11 .......12 to 17
Under 100% FPG [fam of 4 = $20,000] 20.7% 18.1% 16.3%
Under 150% FPG [fam of 4 = $30,000] 32.5% 28.1% 26.2%
Under 200% FPG [fam of 4 = $40,000] 43.3% 39.9% 36.3%
Under 300% FPG [fam of 4 = $60,000] 61.2% 58.7% 54.5%
Under 400% FPG [fam of 4 = $80,000] 74.2% 72.6% 68.9%
More of our children live in places like New Jersey, where the median income for a family of 4 is $94,441, than in New Mexico, where the median income for a family of 4 is $52,034. If Wisconsin is fairly typical, the median income for a family of 4, of $72,495, is 363% of the median for a family of 4. The 50% of that family-of-4 median is $36,250, representing perhaps 40% of our small children, 35% of our elementary-school children, and 33% of our middle- and upper-school children.
Child relative poverty (ie, children living in a household with relative income poverty) appears to be a potentially important indicator for children's health. Relative income poverty is commonly defined as having equivalized household income of less than 50% of the national median.
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