Poverty Strikes RI Children

Published: January 22, 2015 12:01 AM
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By RICHARD SALIT

Journal staff writer

rsalit@providencejournal.com

A new report finds that more than one in every five children in Rhode Island was living in poverty in 2013, a rate that is little improved since the end of the recession and is worse than the rest of New England.

The report, put out by Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, says 21.5 percent of children younger than 18 live below the federal poverty level. That’s 44,923 of the state’s 208,700 children, according to the report.

The next closest state, Maine, was at 17.7 percent, while the federal rate was slightly higher, 22.2 percent.

Not surprisingly, the state’s urban communities had the highest poverty rates for children living under 18. They were Central Falls (41 percent), Providence (40.5 percent), Woonsocket (31.8 percent), Pawtucket (25.3 percent), and Newport (24.4 percent). Article