Children in Poverty on Martha's Vineyard, Town by Town

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, Patch is rolling out a series of maps to raise awareness about people in the area who are doing without. The map above shows a snapshot across the Island of the percentage of children living below the poverty line.

Most people normally don’t think of poverty on Martha's Vineyard.

But according to U.S. Census data from 2011, 18.6 percent of Vineyard Haven families with children were living below the poverty line. In Oak Bluffs, the figure was 11. 3 percent; for up-Island, it was 10.1 percent.

In every case but Edgartown's, the poverty rate for families with children was several percentage points greater than for all households in each town (see "The Real Martha's Vineyard: Poverty Across the Island.")

The census found no Edgartown families with children living in poverty, although more than 7.1 percent of households overall were reported to be below the poverty line in 2011.

Poverty can make life tremendously challenging for children. Studies show that children growing up in poverty are more likely to have problems in school, develop health issues and remain poor as adults.

More than 20 percent of all children in the U.S. live in poverty. That’s about 16.4 million children and 4.5 percent more than in the start of the Great Recession in 2007.

However, in 2011, for the first time in years, the child-poverty rate essentially remained steady and continued to stay generally the same at 21.8 percent in 2012.

The data in this map are from the United States Census Bureau's 2011 American Community Survey. These values are an estimate for 2011 taking into account 60 months of collected data. You can learn more about the survey here.

Using your cursor, you can hover over any census tract – the geographic region defined by the U.S. Census – and see in the box in the upper right hand corner of the map the percentage of children living below the poverty line.
What do you think explains the differences between the towns in the percentage of children living below the poverty line? Tell us in a comment or a blog post.

Newscruncher is a daily series that breaks down the characteristics of your town by the numbers. You can see more posts by clicking the Newscruncher link above the headline or by checking out our weekend roundups. If you see any technical issues with this map, or if you'd like to suggest ideas for future Newscruncher articles, please email data@patch.com.