December 4, 2003

 

Many Young North Dakota Families Impoverished

In 2000, one in five North Dakota families with children under 18 years of age were poor or near poor, according to data reported by the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University.

This month’s Population Bulletin, a monthly publication by the North Dakota State Data Center, looks at family poverty data obtained from the 2000 Census. The Census provides income data reported as a percentage of poverty. The data offers the ability to look at those families below the poverty threshold as well as families slightly above it (100 to 149 percent, for example). "It is important for policy makers to consider those families that are conceivably one or two paychecks away from impoverishment. That is why these data are so important," said Richard Rathge, Director of the Data Center.

For purposes of this month’s publication, ‘poor and near poor’ reflect families with incomes at or below 149 percent of poverty. The poverty threshold in 2000 for a married couple with one child was $13,861, while the ‘near poor’ threshold for that same family was $20,653. "In terms of wages, one of the parents in a married-couple family with one child needs to earn $6.70 working full-time and year-round to stay above poverty. If they earned between $6.70 and $10.00, they would be considered ‘near poor,’" Rathge said.

Nationally, 23.1 percent of families with children were poor or near poor in 2000. Leading the nation, where approximately 35 percent of families with children were poor or near poor, were Mississippi (35.4 percent), the District of Columbia (35.2 percent), and New Mexico (34.6 percent). Minnesota and New Hampshire had the lowest rates (13.9 percent and 12.0 percent, respectively.)

Parents who were married were less likely to be poor or near poor than single parents. In 2000, approximately 13 percent of married couples with young children in North Dakota were poor or near poor compared to 59 percent of single mothers and 35 percent of single fathers.

While single mothers in North Dakota represented only 16.7 percent of all families with children in 2000, single mothers in or near poverty comprised nearly half of all families with children in or near poverty (45.4 percent). In all but eight of North Dakota’s 53 counties the majority of single mothers were poor or near poor in 2000. In seven counties, three of every four single mothers were poor or near poor; Dunn (80.7 percent), Benson (79.7 percent), Sheridan (76.9 percent), Billings (75.0 percent), and Rolette (73.8 percent).

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Source: Richard Rathge, (701) 231-8621, richard.rathge@ndsu.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu

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