More than 16 million American children currently live in poverty
D espite having immense economic prosperity, the United States has the 4 th highest rate of child poverty amongst the world’s developed countries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. With a child poverty rate of 21.63% the U.S. trails only Turkey, Chile, and Mexico. Mexico has the highest rate of child poverty amongst developed nations with a rate of 25.79%. On November 20, 2012, a FRONTLINE documentary titled Poor Kids premiered on PBS. Poor Kids offers a glimpse of how poor children in America cope with living in poverty. Persistent hunger, stress, and constantly changing living conditions are common challenges that children living in poverty endure on a daily basis. In 2011, more than 16 million children or about 1 in 5 were living in poverty, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. FRONTLINE and the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health confirm tha