Another study found that New Mexico is not a great place for underprivileged children.
This time, a Wallethub study found New Mexico is the fourth-worst state for underprivileged children when looking at 16 different metrics. The study also included the District of Columbia, which means New Mexico ranked 47th.
New Mexico ranked 50th in the percentage of children living in households that are below the poverty line and 50th in the rate of children who are “food insecure.” The USDA defines food insecurity as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.”
New Mexico ranked in the top-half of the rankings in three categories—ranking 15th in the percentage of children in foster care (0.46 percent), 25th in Economic Mobility (8.97 percent) and 18th in the infant mortality rate (5.41 deaths per 1,000 births).
Still, the state ranked in the bottom five in seven categories.
According to Wallethub, the United States as a whole “has the ninth-highest rate of child poverty among economically developed nations.” Those numbers came from a UNICEF report on “inequality in child well-being in rich countries.”
This isn’t the only study to find New Mexico ranks low when it comes to child well-being. The latest annual KIDS COUNT report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found New Mexico ranked 49th in overall child well-being.
The District of Columbia ranked 51st overall on the ranking for underprivileged children, slightly ahead of Mississippi and Louisiana in 50th and 49th. Georgia, at 47th rounded out the bottom five.
On the other end of the list, New Hampshire topped the list. New Jersey, Utah, Minnesota and Iowa rounded out the top five.
