State Rankings on the Well-Being of Children in Low-Income Families By

Since the mid-1990s, states and local areas have been afforded more flexibility in creating and implementing social policies to improve children’s lives. For example, between 2000 and 2002, federal and state spending on child welfare programs increased by 7 percent, and local government spending on child welfare increased by 15 percent. This devolution of power from the federal government to states and local communities has created a growing demand for state and local data on child well-being. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual KIDS COUNT Data Book provides estimates and rankings of states based on 10 key indicators of child well-being. This paper expands on that effort by examining state-level differences in the well-being of children living in low-income families. Approximately 39 percent of children in the United States live in families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty threshold. The examination of child well-being in low-income families is particularly important because negative child outcomes are concentrated in the low-income population, and many public policies and social support programs are aimed at helping low-income families. This paper uses data from the 2003 American Community Survey to examine state variation in the well-being of low-income children. The first part of th