Issue Brief: Child Poverty in Essex County
The number of children living in poverty in Essex County has increased over the past 15 years, and in some places, quite dramatically. Increasing numbers of Essex County’s poor children live in neighborhoods of extreme
Issue Brief: Child Poverty in Essex County
The number of children living in poverty in Essex County has increased over the past 15 years, and in some places, quite dramatically. Increasing numbers of Essex County’s poor children live in neighborhoods of extreme poverty.
Child poverty is becoming more concentrated. CLiME’s analysis of Census data shows that 52.5 percent of Essex County’s poorest children live in census tracts where the concentration of child poverty exceeds 40 percent—double the rate in 2000. Child poverty is also spreading. High child poverty rates that had been historically concentrated in Newark are suburbanizing beyond central city limits, and increasing even in some of the county’s wealthier municipalities.
The State of New Jersey is a bastion for localism or home rule, with 565 municipalities in one of the nation's smallest states. As residents and scholars of New Jersey, we know that its localism is both a product and a consequence of class and racial distinctions.
In many ways, Essex County is a bellwether of New Jersey localism and its ensuing economic inequality. With 22 municipalities, Essex County is home to Newark, the state's largest city, with a median household income of $33,139 and a population that is over 85 percent people of color (50% Black, 36% Hispanic). Just six miles away from Newark is Millburn, a township with a median household income of $165,603 and a population that is 11 percent people of color (8% Asian). Within the 129 square miles of Essex County, New Jersey residents can live in completely different worlds.
Child poverty is often used as an indicator for the socioeconomic wellbeing of a region. A child is considered to be living in poverty if the child’s family falls under the poverty threshold, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, which is $16,337 for a family of one adult and one child, and $24,036 for a family of two adults and two children. The purpose of this report is to investigate how child poverty is distributed in Essex County and how it has changed over time, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census and 2011-2015 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.
While the total number of Essex County's children in poverty has increased by 19 percent over the last fifteen years, this growth varies greatly by locality. The highest numbers of children i