Report: Child poverty increasing in Ohio

COLUMBUS (AP) — A report by a child advocacy group says more than a third of Ohio’s counties had child poverty rates of 25 percent or higher in 2009, double the number of counties in the category a year earlier.

The Columbus Dispatch reported today that the findings by the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio used U.S. Census estimates to determine at least one in four children were impoverished in 31 of the state’s 88 counties. The number in 2008 was 15.

Fund Executive Director Renuka Mayadev tells the newspaper the findings show how families have been hurt by the recession.

“It’s remarkable that there’s that much of a difference in just one year,” she said. “People need to pay attention to this. The data catches up with the times.”

Overall, 21.6 percent of Ohio children were impoverished. Estimates were highest, 36.5 percent, in Jackson County in Appalachia. The lowest percentage, 6.4, was in Delaware County in central Ohio.

Poverty is determined by federal income guidelines that in 2009, said a family of four was living in poverty if it had an income of $22,050 or less.