The number of Florida children living in poverty continues to grow, despite claims that the state’s economy is getting better.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual Kids Count Data Book says there are nearly a million Florida kids living in poverty—about one out of every four.
It also says that child poverty in Florida has grown from 18 to 24 percent since the Great Recession.
That’s a 35 percent rise.
The foundation cites several reasons for the vast number of kids living without.
Parents are under-and unemployed.
Wages are low and stagnant.
And rent continues to skyrocket as people lose their homes to foreclosure and increase demand for rentals.
The poverty threshold is about $24 thousand a year for a family of two adults and two children.
