What does this measure?

The number of children under 18 within a racial or ethnic group who live below the federally defined poverty line, expressed as a percentage of all children under 18 with the same racial or ethnic group. Poverty thresholds vary by family composition and year. In 2019, the threshold for a four-person family with two children was $25,926.

Why is this important?

Children raised in impoverished environments are at higher risk for a wide variety of health and social problems, including poor performance in school. The challenges they face in childhood can diminish their chances for successful adult lives, Studies have found that the stress of living in poverty can cause biological changes in children that can lead to long-term health problems. Throughout the nation, racial disparities across many indicators of well-being (including poverty rates) are persistent, troubling and in need of attention.

How is our county performing?

In 2015-19, the poverty rate for Hispanic (37%) and African American (30%) children in Berks County was much higher than among white (14%). These rates have increased since 2000 for white children by 6 percentage points, but have decreased for Hispanics by 5 percentage points, and 3 percentage points for African American children.

Disparities were higher in the central region of the county in 2015-19 compared to the county as a whole. In the City of Reading, 48% of Hispanic and 45% of white children lived in poverty. Since 2000, this represented an increase of 1 percentage point for Hispanic children and 17 points for white children.

Berks County's child poverty rate for Hispanic children was 1 percentage point higher than Pennsylvania and 10 points higher than the nation. For African-American children, the county's poverty rate was slightly lower than the state (36%) and the nation (33%). While all neighboring counties had racial and ethnic disparities in 2015-19, Montgomery County had lower poverty rates for Hispanic, African-American and white children than Berks County. Child populations for most other local areas, when broken down by race and ethnicity, were too small to yield reliable survey results.

Why do these disparities exist?

As people of color have historically and contemporaneously been locked out of economic opportunity in many ways, poverty crosses generations, and child poverty rates are higher. Factors include: living in a single-parent household, especially if the single parent is female; having parent(s) who are unemployed, employed and/or underemployed in low-wage jobs or incarcerated; and living in communities that have experienced disinvestment and have ineffective and/or under-resourced schools.

Notes about the data

For additional detail as to how the Berks County regions are defined and which boroughs and townships are included in each, see the About Us page.

There may be additional research available on this topic. Click on Reports and Resources to learn more.

Poverty status is not reported for people in institutions, including college dormitories and military barracks, and people in living situations without conventional housing. The Census Bureau asks people to identify their race (white, African American, etc.) separate from their ethnicity (Hispanic or non-Hispanic). So the totals for these categories cannot be added together, as people may show up in both a racial and ethnic group.

The multiyear figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined 5 years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.