The latest annual Kids Count report shows that 18 percent of U.S. children, or 13.3 million kids, are living in poverty—1 million more than in 2000.
The study uses the official poverty line of $20,444 a year for a family four. A more realistic measure would reveal even greater child poverty rates.
The report also shows that 8.2 percent of U.S. babies were under 5.5 pounds at birth in 2005—the highest rate of low birth weights since 1968. Those babies are at greater risk of early death or long-term disabilities. Socialist Cuba, by contrast, has only a 6 percent rate of low birth weights and is working on an innovative treatment involving 24-hour skin-to-skin contact between the mother and child.
A recent UNICEF study ranked the U.S. next to last among 33 industrialized countries based on childhood well-being, and 29th based on low birth weights rates.
