Mass. Considered Better State for Underprivileged Children

By CHARLENE ARSENAULT (Patch Staff)

August is Child Support Awareness Month, and in light of this, the personal finance site WalletHub released its analysis of 2015’s Best and Worst States for Underprivileged Children.

In the analysis, WalletHub compared 50 states and the District of Columbia using 15 key metrics that included child food-insecurity, infant death rates, children in single-parent families and children in households with below-poverty income.

The results showed New Hampshire as the best state to be in for disadvantaged children, and Mississippi ranking last of the states, with District of Columbia at 51. Massachusetts ranked ninth in the list, just after Iowa.

Massachusetts ranked tenth in the percentage of children in households with below-povery income, fourth in child food-insecurity rate, first in percentage of children without health insurance and second in infant-death rate per 1,000 births. The Bay State ranked sixth in education, fourth in health and 17th in early foundations and economic well-being.

WalletHub points out that the United States has the second highest rate of child poverty among economically-developed nations, meaning that 14.7 million children in America live under poverty.

Read the full report here.