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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Census Bureau data released today reveal 45.3 million poor people in America in 2013, 1 in 3 are children. For yet another year children remain the poorest age group in the country although the percentage of poor children dropped significantly for the first time since 2000, from 21.8 percent (16.1 million) in 2012 to 19.9 percent (14.7 million) in 2013. Although 1.5 million fewer children were poor in 2013, there were still 1.3 million more poor children than before the recession began in 2007.

“Child poverty is a moral blight on America,” said Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund. “It is higher than for American adults, higher than for children in other competitor nations, and higher than the country with the world’s largest economy should ever allow. Income inequality is higher than it’s been for more than 100 years and rising, and opportunity gaps are widening. Where are our values and priorities? If we want to build a strong workforce, military and economy, and seek to reflect the most basic tenets of opportunity for the most vulnerable, we must end child poverty now.”

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The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind^® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

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