Ohio ranks 35th in the nation for child poverty. According to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau, about one in five Ohio children, or roughly 513,000, lived in poverty last year.
Those numbers are even more shocking when parsed by race, Tracy Najera of the Children’s Defense Fund says.
“The state of Ohio ranks last for multiracial children in poverty,” Najera says. Ohio’s black, Hispanic and multiracial children had higher rates of poverty than white children.
While the overall percentage of children in poverty decreased from 2016, Ohio’s ranking in comparison to the rest of the country has worsened.
“There are other states that are doing much better, and they’re moving much faster in getting children out of poverty,” she says.
Childhood poverty is connected to poor health and educational outcomes.
