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Survey: Slight Improvement, But NM Still Ranks Second-To-Last In Young Child Poverty

census.gov

 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Federal figures show the poverty rate among children 5 years old and younger improved in New Mexico last year, but the state still has one of the highest child poverty rates in the nation.

U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey results were released Thursday. They indicated 28.9 percent of the state's young children — or 123,000 total — were living at or below the federal poverty line in 2017. The percentage represented a more than 7-point decline from the year before.

An analysis from New Mexico Voices for Children found that the state tied with Louisiana in ranking second-to-last in child poverty, after ranking dead last in 2016.

Mississippi was that state with the nation's highest poverty rate in 2017.