The pairing of the dramatic rise in births by single mothers and the collapse of marriage in the United States has led to record levels of children living in one-parent households. And new research shows that more children are living in poverty due to the decrease in marriage rates.
Over a third of all single-parent families with children (37 percent) were poor in 2009, according to Heritage Foundation research, but only 6.8 percent of married couples with children were poor. This means that when a child’s father is married to his mother, the probability of the child living in poverty drops by a staggering 82 percent.
Many of the children living in poverty rely on government welfare programs for financial support and help. “We spend billions of dollars a year to educate low-income children, quite appropriately, and billions more for means-tested welfare aid for single mothers,” says Heritage’s welfare expert, Robert Rector.
Government welfare spending fails to address the root of the issue – the decline of marriage. Lawmakers are unaware of or choose to ignore the link between marriage and poverty prevention.
The effects are not isolated to one income group, geographic area or demographic. Rector reports:
In Florida, for example, white families headed by single parents are five times more likely to be poor than those headed by married couples. In Illinois, the poverty rate for a single mother with only a high school diploma is 39.5 percent, compared with 8 percent for a married couple with the same education.
Politicians are ignoring this critical correlation between marriage and poverty. To learn more about childhood poverty and view the research, visit http:/www.heritage.org/childpoverty.