Monthly Child Poverty Rate

The child poverty rate increased to 17% for most of 2022 because an important tax benefit for families with children ended in Dec 2021.

Monthly child poverty rates, U.S.

Jan 2020-Aug 2022

Source: Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University and Census Bureau, PEP. Notes: These monthly estimates are based on the supplemental poverty rate, which includes after-tax income, in-kind benefits, and transfers such as earned income tax credits (EITC), child tax credits (CTC), stimulus checks, and other gov’t benefits.

From July through December 2021, the American Rescue Plan provided low and middle-income families with monthly Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments. The majority of these families spent these funds on essentials such as housing, utilities, healthier foods, clothing and school supplies.¹ But after the CTC expiration in December 2021, child poverty spiked to 17% in January 2022, where, according to the most recent monthly estimates, it remains (after a dip in March/April when families received tax refunds). Just last month, the U.S. Census Bureau published an annual child poverty rate for 2021, which also reflected the positive effects of the monthly child tax credit payments at the end of 2021. However, the 12-month poverty rate fails to capture month-to-month income volatility for low income families.

The chronic stress that impoverished children experience actually disrupts the development of the brain. The accumulated burdens of economic hardship — including uncertainty about whether there will be enough food to eat each day, frequent home moves, exposure to violence, and lack of supervision when parents work irregular schedules in low-wage jobs — lead to chronic stress that adversely impacts brain architecture.^2,3 Children living in poverty develop less gray matter volumes which, in turn, negatively impacts their school readiness, and results in later difficulties in memory and self-regulation.⁴ Large-scale, long-term studies have found that increasing government support for children boosts their academic achievement, increases their earnings as adults, decreases their likelihood of needing government support as adults, and reduces their likelihood of becoming incarcerated.^5,6

1. “The impacts of the 2021 expanded child tax credit on family employment, nutrition, and financial well-being: Findings from the Social Policy Institute’s Child Tax Credit Panel (Wave 2)”. Hamilton, Roll, Despard, Maag, Chun, Brugger, and Grinstein-Weiss. Brookings. April, 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Child-Tax-Credit-Report-Final_Updated.pdf

2. “Irregular Work Scheduling and Its Consequences”. Golden. Economic Policy Institute. April, 2015. https://www.epi.org/publication/irregular-work-scheduling-and-its-consequences/

3. “Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain”. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. January, 2014. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2005/05/Stress_Disrupts_Architecture_Developing_Brain-1.pdf

4. “Association of Child Poverty, Brain Development, and Academic Achievement”. Hair, Hanson, Wolfe, and Pollack. JAMA Pediatrics. December, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4687959/

5. “Is the Social Safety Net a Long-Term Investment? Large-Scale Evidence from the Food Stamps Program”. Bailey, Hoynes, Rossin-Slater, and Walker. National Bureau of Economic Research. April, 2020. https://www.nber.org/papers/w26942

6. “Let the Child Tax Credit work”. Berlin, Gale. Brookings. July, 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2022/07/07/let-the-child-tax-credit-work/