*In the United States in 2001, the poverty rate for all individuals was 11.7%.  For children under the age of 18, the poverty rate was 16.3%, and for children under the age of 6, the rate was 18.2%.
*There were 6.8 million poor families (9.2%) in 2001, up from 6.4 million (6.7%) in 2000.
Regardless of race or ethnicity, poor children are much more likely than non-poor children to suffer developmental delay and damage, to drop out of high school, and to give birth during the teen years (Miranda, 1991).
*Poverty is caused by interrelated factors:  Parental employment status and earnings, family structure, and parental education (Five Million Children, 1992).
*The United states' child poverty rate is substantially higher--often two or three times higher--than that of most other major Western industrialized nations.
(Payne, 2001, p. 11-12).
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*The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), based at Columbia University has tracked child poverty rates (under 6 years old) from 1975 to 1994.  The NCCP study reports that "the young child poverty rate has grown to include one in four young children and that nearly 50 percent of American young children are near poverty or below"(http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/news/press_releases/12-11-96.html).  (Payne, 2001, p.160)