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WisKids Count 2003 Facts

Wiskids Count 2003 Facts

In Wisconsin …

• From 1990 to 2000 child poverty declined from 14.9% to 11.2%. However, since 2000, child poverty has increased. According to the Census Bureau, in 2002 over 30,000 more Wisconsin children were poor than in 2000. The 2002 child poverty rate was 13.5%. Poverty in Wisconsin is still borne disproportionately by children of color.
  
  
• Over the last decade the percent of children in single parent families increased from 18.1 % to 21.7%.
  
  
• After falling throughout the 1990s, the percent of families receiving food stamps has increased from 36.7 per thousand in 2000 to 49.4 per thousand in 2002, representing an increase of over 73,000 people.
  
  
• After holding steady at about 26% for most of the last decade, school lunch participation has jumped to 27.8%, an increase of over 71,000 school children.
  
  
• From 2000 to 2003, the percent of renters in Wisconsin unable to afford the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment has increased from 26% to 40%.
  
  
• More mothers are seeking prenatal care in the first trimester of their pregnancy - an increase from 82% in 1991 to 83.7% in 2001. Infant deaths are down from 8.4 per thousand births in 1991 to 6.6 per thousand births in 2001.
  
  
• Births to single mothers have increased substantially, from 25% to 30% of all births.
  
  
• Participation in Medicaid dipped in the mid 1990s and is again on the rise. Enrollment has risen from 15.3 % to 22% of all children. Healthy Start participation has also increased, from 3.1% to 8.4% of all children.
  
  
• Children attending four-year-old Kindergarten have doubled from 11% in 1995 to 23% in 2002.
  
  
• Enrollment in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program increased from 36% of children age birth to four in 1995 to 38% in 2002.