Saint Paul, Minn. – The Census Bureau has released its annual poverty data indicating that in 2019, 10.5 million American children lived in poverty, among them 143,000 Minnesota children (11.2 percent), making them the poorest age group. While these estimates do not adequately capture the present-day realities of Americans due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, they do reveal the vast racial inequities of income and wealth in Minnesota that have only become more pronounced during this public health crisis.
We know that significant investments in working families and their children pay off for both them and our state. As we move through this moment of acute crisis, we lift up our shared values and use them as a guide for what comes next.