Profile of Memphis’s Children

Memphis Child Poverty Rate, 2013 – 45.7%

Child Poverty Rate by Race – 2013
52.8% – African-American
62.5%  – Hispanic
14.0%  – Caucasian (not Hispanic)

Female Head of Household Child Poverty Rate – 2012 – 53.1%
54.5% – African-American
67.5% – Hispanic
29.8% – Caucasian (not Hispanic)

Married Couple With Children Poverty Rate – 2012 – 12.4%
9.2% – African-American
45.5% – Hispanic
7.7% – Caucasian (not Hispanic)

Memphis is #3 in highest child poverty rate for cities with more than 500,000 people.  The Memphis MSA is #1 for metros with more than one million people.

60% of Memphis children live with an unmarried parent.  71% of children in Memphis are African-American.  The child poverty rate in Memphis has risen from 35% in 2005 to 45.7% today.

Four Memphis zip codes have poverty rates for children under 5 of more than 55%, three are higher than 60%, and one is higher than 70%.  There are six zip codes with poverty rates for 6-11 year olds greater than 55%, with three greater than 64%.  There are five zip codes with poverty rates for 12-17 year olds that are greater than 60%.

Johns Hopkins groundbreaking study released this year concluded that “a family’s resources and the doors they open cast a long shadow over a children’s life trajectories.  This view is at odds with the popular ethos that we are the makers of our own fortune.”  Researchers followed 790 school children for almost 25 years and only one-third of children moved from birth families in the low-income bracket to the high-income bracket as adults.  One of the most striking findings was that almost none of the children from low-income families made it through college; among those who did not attend college, white men from low-income backgrounds found the best-paying jobs (45% of them were working in construction trades and industrial crafts compared to 15% of black men); 89% of white dropouts were working compared to 40% of African-American dropouts; white women from low-income backgrounds benefit financially from marriage and stable live-in partnerships with working class white men; and better off white men are most likely to abuse drugs.

* Child Poverty Percentages Data: Elena Delavega, Department of Social Work, School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, University of Memphis