Georgia could do more to reduce its ranks of underprivileged children, that’s according to the personal finance website WalletHub. The organization studied all 50 states and the District of Columbia in areas including the infant mortality rate, the number of uninsured children and the child food-insecurity rate.
“This is one of those rankings where you don’t want to be the top,” according to Analyst Jill Gonzalez. “Number one would have the most underprivileged children, 51 would have the least. Georgia is 13th, so it’s not in the worst 10 here, but certainly close to it.”
Analysts Jill Gonzalez says there are a few serious problem areas in the state.
“There’s a really high number, almost 40% of children are in single-parent families, about two percent have grandparents responsible for raising them with no parent in the home, and more than a quarter of kids in Georgia were living in households where the income was below the poverty level within the last year.”
She says those problems contribute to others.
“So those three things really snowball into other things that we look at here.”
Gonzalez says the Peach State was better in at least one area.
“There is a high rate of children that are enrolled in school, even as young as three to four, in some type of preschool program, so that’s definitely good news.”
Mississippi was the worst ranked state at number one of the list, while New Hampshire was the best at number 51.
For the full report, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-states-underprivileged-children/5403/
