The KidsCount data report released recently indicates poverty is still an issue in Gratiot, Clare and Isabella counties.
A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to track the well-being of children in the U.S., it provides high-quality data and trend analysis through its website to enrich local, state and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children, according to its website.
Its goal is to raise the visibility of children’s issues through a nonpartisan, evidence-based lens.
The number of people overall living in poverty in a single year has declined in all three counties. The data is for 2016, the most recent year available for this information.
This is defined by the number of people living below the poverty threshold. The percent is based on the population for whom poverty status was determined by the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program.
Clare County has 6,496 people living in poverty in a single year as of 2016, down from 7,437 in 2015. This is down from 7,502 in 2012.
The number of people in poverty increased in Gratiot County as of that year to 6,742 people, up from 5,938 in 2015.
In Isabella County, there are 15,118 people living in poverty as of that year, down from 16,744 in 2015.
Children aged 5 to 17 years old in poverty in a single year has decreased in all three counties, according to the report.
In Clare County, there are 1,372 children living in poverty as of 2016, down from 1,612 in 2015.
The 2016 number is down from 1,557 reported in 2012.
In Gratiot County, there are 1,249 children in poverty as of 2016, down from 1,913 in 2015.
The 2016 number is down from 1,464 in 2012.
The number of children living in poverty in Isabella County as of 2016 is 1,588, down from 1,613 children in 2015.
In 2012, there were 1,799 children living in poverty in Isabella County.
The State of Michigan has 297,400 children living in poverty as of 2016, down from 330,996 in 2015.
“The report reveals that poverty and other economic strains remain a significant problem for Michigan kids, especially kids of color. While the rate of child poverty in Michigan has improved by 11.5 percent since 2010, more than 1 in 5 kids in Michigan — including 42 percent of African-American kids and 30 percent of Latinx kids — still lived in poverty in 2016. Additionally, 31 percent of children in Michigan lived in families without year-round, full-time employment,” a news release indicated.