Louisiana’s child poverty rate increase leads US: study

(Louisiana Illuminator) — Louisiana’s child poverty rate over the past three years leads the nation, according to a new study that attributes the trend to rising costs and expiring public assistance programs. The state also had the largest increase in child poverty rate over the same period of time.

The report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation comes out as Louisiana — along with other states — has announced it will not provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in

November, with Gov. Jeff Landry calling on Democrats in Congress to end the federal government shutdown that’s led to a lapse in SNAP funding. 

Compiled from U.S. Census data, the study shows how inflation and the end of pandemic-era economic assistance caused the rate of poverty for people under age 18 to rise across the country to 13% in 2024.

To account for the smaller sample size of states, the study measured rates across three years rather than annually. Louisiana has seen one of the steepest rises in child poverty rates, jumping from 11% measured from 2019-21 to 19% from 2022-24, tied for highest in the nation with Washington, D.C. 

Data for 2024 from the U.S. Census Bureau ranks Louisiana 49th with a child poverty rate of 24.8%. Only Mississippi’s rate was worse at 25%, and New Mexico was third worst at 21.4%. 

“Poverty poses a serious threat to children’s development and long-term well-being, with far-reaching consequences for our economy,” foundation vice president Leslie Boissiere said in a news release. “The data unequivocally show that public programs have a direct positive impact on our nation’s children.”

Over the past three years, 45 states and Washington, D.C., saw increases in child poverty. Regionally, states in the Southeast had the highest average child poverty rates in the country, while Midwestern states had the lowest. 

Louisiana’s 19% child poverty rate from 2022-24 represented about 200,000 Louisiana children, according to the study. 

SNAP is among the public programs the foundation credits with helping alleviate child poverty rates. Without federal food assistance, child poverty rates across the U.S. could rise 15% and affect an additional 1.42 million children, according to the report. 

The metrics used for the report capture local cost variations, tax credits and costs of essential expenses for families such as health care and housing to calculate whether or not a child is in poverty. The results also show that access to quality, well-paying jobs for family members and lowering the cost of household essentials like health and child care also play a large role in reducing the rate of child poverty.

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