FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Nayda I. Rivera-Hernández
(787) 649-9501
nrivera@nclr.org
Gains of the 1990s lost in economic downturn
San Juan, Puerto Rico—According to data released by the Annie E Casey Foundation in its 2011 KIDS COUNT Data Book, Puerto Rico’s children face greater risks than children in the mainland United States in key indicators of child health and well-being.
The report, released today, had these additional key findings:
• On nine out of the ten key measures for child well-being, children in Puerto Rico face higher levels of risk overall than the average U.S. child.
• The child poverty rate for Puerto Rico (57%) is nearly three times the level in the U.S. as a whole (20%).
• Compared to all U.S. states, Puerto Rico has the highest rates of babies with low birth weight (12.5%), teens not attending school and not working (15%), children without secure parental employment (52%), and children in single-parent families (54%).
• The infant mortality rate in Puerto Rico (8.4 deaths per 1,000 live births) has improved since 2000.
• Babies born to teen mothers in Puerto Rico (57 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19) decreased 24% between 2000 and 2008.
“Due to the lack of resources, which become even more limited each day, the well-being of our children is greatly threatened. We have to stop this assault on them and use this information to plan, prioritize, and start allocating resources that will strengthen and invest in our Island’s future. The future of Puerto Rico is its children,” said Nayda Rivera-Hernández, Senior Research Analyst at NCLR (National Council of La Raza).
According to data in the 22nd annual KIDS COUNT Data Book, the economic and social gains for children that occurred across the 1990s stalled, even before the economic downturn began. This year’s Data Book reports an 18 % increase in the U.S. child poverty rate between 2000 and 2009. Overall, this increase means that 2.5 million more American children are living below the federal poverty line ($21,756 for a family of two adults and two children) and effectively wiping out the gains made on this important measure in the late 1990s.
In an ongoing effort to track the impact of the recession, there are two new indicators in this year’s data set—the number of children affected by foreclosure, and households with at least one unemployed parent. In Puerto Rico, 3,000 of the state’s children, or less than one percent, have been affected by foreclosure since 2007.
In addition to the ten key measures tracked in the Data Book, the KIDS COUNT Data Center
(http://datacenter.kidscount.org) provides easy, online access to the latest child well-being data on hundreds of indicators by state, county, city, and school district. It serves as a comprehensive source of information for policymakers, advocates, members of the media, and others concerned with addressing the needs of children, families, and communities. By visiting the Data Center, users can download the complete Data Book, and create interactive maps and graphs. Visit the new mobile site being launched in conjunction with this year’s Data Book from your smartphone, such as the Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone.
The KIDS COUNT Data Book with state-by-state rankings and supplemental data is available at http://datacenter.kidscount.org. For interactive Puerto Rico KIDS COUNT data, please visit http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/StateLanding.aspx?state=PR.
Follow the Annie E. Casey Foundation and this issue on Twitter @aeckidscount and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KIDSCOUNT.
# # #