US Child Poverty

According to the Global Wealth Report by Allianz, an international financial service company, the United States is the world’s wealthiest country, controlling 41.6 percent of global wealth. Though the US has the highest gross domestic product per capita among the G20 countries, it also has one of the highest rates of income inequality.

Save The Children released its annual "Child Prosperity Index" report, which evaluates 19 developed nations on a number of criteria to determine whether they are good environments for raising children. Despite being the wealthiest country, the United States ranked ninth, trailing behind Germany, Canada, and Italy, among others. The index uses indicators such as life expectancy, child obesity, homicide rates, access to water, and air pollution, among many others, to determine the rankings.

The Gini index, a measure of income inequality, places countries on a scale of zero to one, with zero meaning a country is completely equal in income, and one indicating the highest disparity in income.  The United States has a Gini index of 0.4, one of the highest among developed nations, according to Fortune. That disparity widened even further in 2015. The average income of the top one percent of US earners grew by 7.7 percent last year, much faster than the four percent growth of the bottom 99 percent.

Within the United States, 22 percent of all children live in poverty, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/new-economy/2016/0722/Which-country-is-best-for-children-Not-the-United-States-study-finds