1 in 9 Wyoming children live in poverty

The Children's Defense Fund has issued a report that gives some statistics for the state of Wyoming. The report finds that 1 in 9 Wyoming children live in poverty. But, Bill McCarthy of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle says that is still better than the national average.

The national average shows one in six kids living in poverty, according to the report called "The State of America's Children 2008."

The report indicates the number of poor children in the nation has increased nearly 500,000 to 13.3 million, with 5.8 million of them living in extreme poverty and nearly 9 million children lacking health coverage.

"We expect it could rise during the recession in the coming year," Crato said.

So the Children's Defense Fund is hoping to spur urgent national and state responses to the problems of child poverty before the situation worsens, she added.

There are about 74 million children in the United States; almost 21 million of them are under the age of 5. In Wyoming, there are 125,365 children; 35,890 are under age 5, the report says.

The federal poverty line for a family of four in 2008 is $21,200 in annual income.

The report says that 11.6 percent of Wyoming children live in poverty. Nationally, 18 percent of kids are living in poverty, the report finds.

A family of four is considered extremely poor in 2008 if their annual household income is below $10,600 -- half of the official poverty line.