Indicator: Youth in Poverty

Outcome (s): Communities capable of meeting the needs of children and families in all of their diversity.

Why This is Important

Growing up at or near the poverty line means that a child is more likely than a non-poor child to experience difficulties in school, to become a teen parent and, as an adult, to earn less and experience greater unemployment.

Where We Stand

In 2004, the estimated percentage of children and youth living in poverty was 14.3% for Maine and 17.8% for the U.S. Both the state and the nation showed a gradual decline in the percentage of young people in poverty since the early 1990’s, though the proportion rose for both in 2002. In 2003 and 2004, while the U.S. percentage rose slightly, Maine stayed the same.

Data Source and Context

This data comes from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) Program, which can be accessed on-line at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe.html. This program was created to provide more current estimates of selected poverty and income statistics than the decennial national Census offers. The Census Bureau creates estimates for states, counties, and school districts under the program.

Note from US Census: Differences between decennial census estimates and model-based estimates are not unambiguous estimates of changes in the levels of income or poverty at the county level. The ambiguity arises because these differences reflect both changes in the levels of income and poverty and differences in the methods by which the two cross-sectional estimates were made.