Facts About Poverty and Learning Disabilities Among Children
On this page, you will discover several facts and statistics gathered from around the Internet that focus in on the severity of childhood poverty and disabilities. Some of these facts you probably knew, but others will most likely come as a shock to you. I encourage you to read these facts and step into the shoes of a child with these hardships in order to understand how important it is to help these kids.
134 million children between the ages of seven to 18 have never been to school.
Girls are three times more likely than boys to be denied education, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.
In 2010, 15.1% of Americans lived in poverty.
To the right is a chart of the poverty levels throughout the United States.
22% (16,401) American children were living in poverty in 2010.
Large groups of blacks and hispanics are in poverty. There are less Asians and white/non-Hispanics.
More than one in five children is at risk of hunger.
Among African-Americans and Latinos, nearly one in three children is at risk of hunger.
More than one in five children in the United States lives below the poverty line.
Children living with immigrant parents are more likely to be poor than children of native-born parents.
20% of children under age 6 live in poor families; 16% of children age 6 or older live in poor families.
Learning Disability Facts
*NOTE:LD stands for Learning Disability
20% of LD students drop out of high school as compared to 8% of the general population.
Close to half of secondary students with LD perform more than three grade levels below their enrolled grade in academic skills (45% in reading, 44% in math).
In the year 2010, an estimated 23.3 percent of non-institutionalized persons aged 21 to 64 years with a disability in the United States have an educational attainment of less than a high school education.
In Pennsylvania alone, an estimated 20.7% of non-institutionalized people with disabilities have less than a high school education.
11% of children ages 6 to 14 have a disability. This amounts to 4 million children.
The World Bank estimates that 20 per cent of the world's poorest people are disabled, and tend to be regarded in their own communities as the most disadvantaged.
The global literacy rate for adults with disabilities is as low as 3 percent, and 1 per cent for women with disabilities, according to a 1998 UNDP study.
Research indicates that violence against children with disabilities occurs at annual rates at least 1.7 times greater than for their non-disabled peers.
35% of students who have been identified as having a learning disability drop out of high school.
Adolescents who have learning disabilities are at increased risk for drug and alcohol abuse.
last updated November 20, 2012
by Caitlin Cormany