SYRACUSE, NY – Child poverty has declined in Syracuse over the past five years, but other large cities across the country have seen larger improvements.
Syracuse still has the worst child poverty rate in the country among cities with at least 100,000 residents, at 46.9%, according to new census estimates released Thursday. The city has long had one of the highest rates of child poverty in the country among major cities.
More than 14,000 children in Syracuse live below the poverty line, which in 2021 was $27,479 for a family of four with two children.
The city’s child poverty rate fell by 1.3 percentage points from 2016 to 2021. That’s an improvement, but the decline is among the smallest among major cities in the country. Almost every one of the 25 largest cities with the worst child poverty rates in the US saw a larger drop in the rate than Syracuse.
Only Shreveport and Baton Rouge in Louisiana posted smaller declines than Syracuse. Rockford, Illinois and Bridgeport, Connecticut were the only cities in the top 25 where child poverty increased from 2016 to 2021.
The latest census estimates provide a region, state and nation snapshot for a five-year period from 2017 to 2021.
They reflect some of the federal anti-poverty efforts during the pandemic, many of which have targeted children. But they also reflect the devastation of the economic crash caused by Covid-19.
The table below shows the 25 cities with the highest levels of child poverty in the country. Two other cities in upstate New York are also on the list: Rochester is #2 and Buffalo is #6.
If you can’t see the table, click here to open this story in a web browser.
The child poverty rate in Syracuse is well above the national average of 17%. It’s also higher than New York State’s figure of 18.4%.
Both numbers have fallen more than Syracuse’s over the past five years. The national rate fell 4.2 points from 2016 to 2021 and the New Yorker fell 3.5 points.
Syracuse continues to rank high in overall poverty. Its most recent rate was No. 3 in the country at 30.1%, behind only Cleveland and Detroit. That is 3.5 points less than in 2016.
The percentage means that more than 39,000 city dwellers live below the poverty line.
In most places in the US, poverty fell from 2016 to 2021, the Census Bureau said. A total of 1,220 counties saw poverty rates fall, compared to just 75 where poverty rates rose.
More than 1,000 counties saw a decrease in child poverty during this period, while 87 saw an increase.
In Onondaga County, overall poverty fell 1.4 points to 13.8%. Child poverty fell by 0.7 points to 21.2%.
In some suburbs of Syracuse, the picture was more mixed.
Although some areas, such as Mattydale and North Syracuse, saw double-digit declines in child poverty between 2016 and 2021, several communities saw rates increase. These include Marcellus, Fairmount, Elbridge and Manlius.
Below are child poverty and overall poverty rates in the Syracuse suburbs. Two notes on the data: CDP refers to a Census Designated Place. CDPs are intended to represent population centers and are used by the Census Bureau for statistical purposes. But they don’t necessarily conform to municipal boundaries.
Also, the margins of error for child poverty rates were generally higher in suburban areas than in larger communities like Syracuse. In the list below, margins range from plus or minus 3 percentage points for Galeville to plus or minus 8.6 percentage points for DeWitt.
The table includes only locations where the margin of error was less than 10 points. The lead for the city of Syracuse was 3 points.
Census poverty estimates take into account income, unemployment, and cash benefits, among other factors.
However, benefits in kind such as food stamps are not included. They also do not include tax credits.
That means families in the Syracuse area were probably doing at least a little better than the latest numbers suggest. Because one of the most important efforts of the government to fight poverty in recent years was the expansion of the child allowance last year.
The expansion increased the value of the loan, made it available to more people, and allowed families to receive a portion of the benefit as a monthly check.
The extension has expired and has not yet been renewed by Congress.
A separate poverty estimate released earlier this year, which takes into account tax credits, found that the expansion helped cut child poverty nationwide by 46% in 2021, to an all-time low.
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