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Basic Needs > Children in Poverty

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Children in Poverty

The percentage of Lincoln’s children in poverty decreased sharply in 2023 after increases in 2021 and 2022

Children who live in poverty face tougher odds for achievement than do other children. People who live in poverty for at least half of their childhoods are more likely to leave high school without a diploma and to be an unwed teen parent when compared with people who were never poor as children.3

  • In 2019, 12% of Lincoln’s children (7,537 persons under age 18) lived in poverty.
  • In 2021 and 2022, the poverty rate among children increased.
    • 15% of Lincoln’s children (9,644) experienced poverty in 2021.
    • 17% of Lincoln’s children (10,105) experienced poverty in 2022.
  • In 2023, 9% of Lincoln’s children (5,308 persons under age 18) lived in poverty.
    • This is a 47% decrease from 2022 in the number of children living in poverty.
    • This is also a 28% decrease from 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notes

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 1-year estimates, Table S1701.

Footnotes
  1. Fiester, L. (2013). Early warning confirmed: A research update on third-grade reading. Baltimore, MD: Annie E Casey Foundation.