marriage & poverty: arkansas

Marriage:Arkansas’ No. 1 Weapon

AgainstChildhood Poverty

How the Collapse of Marriage Hurts Childrenand Three Steps to Reverse the Damage

A Heritage Foundation Book of Charts • January 2012

Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society

Growth of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in Arkansas, 1929–2010

PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK

heritage.orgChart 1 • Marriage and Poverty in Arkansas

0%

10%

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50%

1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

45.3%

40.8%

National

Arkansas

Throughout most of Arkansas’ history, out-of-wedlock childbear-ing was rare.

In 1968, just four years after the federal government began the War on Poverty, only 11.6 percent of children in Arkansas were born outside marriage. However, over the next five decades, the number rose rapidly. By 2010, 45.3 percent of births in Arkansas occurred outside of marriage.

Note: Data on non-marital births in Arkansas are unavailable between 1947 and 1967. However, all states that do have data for this period show a rapid growth in non-marital childbearing from the mid-1960s on. The Arkansas trend during this period undoubtedly parallels the national trend shown in the chart.

Sources: U.S. Government, U.S. Census Bureau, and National Center for Health Statistics.

In Arkansas, Marriage Drops the Probability of Child Poverty by 78 Percent

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2007–2009 data.


PERCENTAGE OF FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN THAT ARE POOR

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60%

Single-Parent, Female-Headed

Families

Married, Two-Parent Families

48.3%

10.5%

The rapid rise in out-of-wedlock childbearing is a major cause of high levels of child pov-erty in Arkansas.

Some 48.3 percent of single mothers with children were poor compared to 10.5 percent of mar-ried couples with children.

Single-parent families with children are nearly five times more likely to be poor than fami-lies in which the parents are mar-ried.

The higher poverty rate among single-mother families is due both to the lower education levels of the mothers and the lower income due to the absence of the father.

In Arkansas, Over One-Third of All Families with Children Are Not Married



63.6%

36.4%

Unmarried Families

Married Families

Overall, married couples head about two-thirds of families with children in Arkansas. Well over one-third are single-parent families.

In Arkansas, 70 Percent of Poor Families with Children Are Not Married



29.8%

70.2%

Unmarried Families

Married Families

Among poor families with children in Arkansas, about seven in ten are not married. By contrast, only 29.8 percent of poor families with children are headed by married couples.

In Arkansas, Few Unwed Births Occur to Teenagers

Out-of-wedlock births are often confused erroneously with teen births, but only 9.4 percent of out-of-wedlock births in Arkansas occur to girls under age 18.

By contrast, some 79 percent of out-of-wedlock births occur to young adult women between the ages of 18 and 29.

Note: Figures have been rounded.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008 NHS data.


PERCENTAGE OF OUT-OF-WEDLOCK BIRTHS BY AGE OF MOTHER

Age18–19:17.6%

Age20–24:40.3%

Age25–29:20.6%

Age30–54:12.1%

UnderAge 18:9.4%

Less-Educated Women Are More Likely to Give Birth Outside of Marriage


PERCENTAGE OF BIRTHS THAT ARE MARITAL OR OUT OF WEDLOCK

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High School Dropout

(0–11Years)

High School Graduate

(12Years)

SomeCollege(13–15Years)

College Graduate

(16+Years)

65.2%

54.5%

42.0%

8.1%

34.8%

45.5%

58.0%

91.9%

Mother’s education level

Unmarried Mothers

Married Mothers

Unwed childbearing occurs most frequently among the women who will have the greatest difficulty sup-porting children by themselves: those with low levels of education.

In the U.S., among women who are high school dropouts, about 65.2 percent of all births occur outside marriage. Among women who have only a high school diploma, well over half of all births occur outside mar-riage. By contrast, among women with at least a college degree, only 8.1 percent of births are out of wed-lock.

Note: Specific data on out-of-wedlock births and maternal education are not available in Arkansas. However, the pattern varies little between states. Arkansas data will be very similar to the national data presented in this chart.


Both Marriage and Education Are Highly Effective in Reducing Child Poverty in Arkansas



Note: Virtually none of the heads of families in the chart who are high school dropouts are minor teenagers.

The poverty rate of married couples with children is dramati-cally lower than the rate for house-holds headed by single parents. This is true even when the married couple is compared to single par-ents with the same education level.

For example, in Arkansas, the poverty rate for a single mother who has only a high school diploma is 40.3 percent, but the poverty rate for a married couple family headed by an individual who, similarly, has only a high school degree is far lower at 9.5 percent.

On average, marriage drops the poverty rate by around 76 percent among families with the same education level.

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70%

High School Dropout

High School Graduate

SomeCollege

College Graduate

64.0%

40.3%

9.5%

40.0%

7.2%

16.1%

1.9%

PERCENTAGE OF FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN THAT ARE POOR

Poverty Rate of Families by Education and Marital Status of the Head of Household

Single Married

26.8%

Unwed Birth Rates Vary Strongly by Race in Arkansas



PERCENT OF BIRTHS THAT ARE OUT OF WEDLOCK

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50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

All Races White Non-

Hispanic

Hispanic BlackNon-

Hispanic

44.6%

33.8%

50.1%

80.3%8.3%

Out-of-wedlock childbearing varies considerably by race.

In Arkansas, in 2008 (the most recent year for which racial break-down is available), more than four in ten births (44.6 percent) occurred outside marriage. The rate was lowest among non-Hispanic whites: around one in three births among white non-Hispanic women were non-marital. Among Hispanics, half of births were out-of-wedlock. Among blacks, eight in ten births were to unmarried women (80.3 percent).

Growth of Unwed Childbearing by Race in Arkansas, 1929–2008

PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK


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40%

60%

80%

100%

1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2008

33.8%

80.3%

Arkansas – WhitesNational – Whites

National – BlacksArkansas – Blacks

Sources: U.S. Government, U.S. Census Bureau, and National Center for Health Statistics.

Note: Data on non-marital births in Arkansas are unavailable between 1947 and 1967. However, all states that do have data for this period show a rapid growth in non-marital child-bearing from the mid-1960s on. The Arkansas trend during this period undoubtedly parallels the national trend shown in the chart.

Historically, out-of-wedlock child-bearing has been somewhat more frequent among blacks than among whites. However, prior to the onset of the federal government’s War on Poverty in the 1960s, the rates for both whites and blacks were com-paratively low.

In 1968, 3.8 percent of white children in Arkansas were born outside marriage. By 2008, the number had risen to more than one in three (33.8 percent).

In 1968, about one-third (33.4 percent) of black children in Arkan-sas were born outside marriage. By 2008, the number had risen to eight in every ten (80.3 percent).

Racial Composition of All Births and Out-of-Wedlock Births in Arkansas

ALL BIRTHS OUT-OF-WEDLOCK BIRTHS



Note: Figures have been rounded.

67.0% White Non-Hispanic

Asian/Other

Black Non-Hispanic

Hispanic

19.7%

10.7%

50.7%

35.5%

12.0%2.0%2.6%

In Arkansas in 2008, some 67 percent of all births occurred to non-Hispanic whites, 19.7 percent occurred to non-Hispanic blacks, and 10.7 percent occurred to Hispanics.

Because blacks and Hispanics are more likely to have children without being married, they account for disproportionately larger shares of out-of-wedlock births. Even so, the majority of unwed births occurred to white non-Hispanic women.

In Arkansas in 2008, 50.7 per-cent of all non-marital births were to non-Hispanic whites, 35.5 percent were to black non-Hispanic women, and 12 percent were to Hispanic women.

Non-Married White Families Are Six Times More Likely to Be Poor in Arkansas

Marriage leads to lower poverty rates for whites, blacks, and His-panics in Arkansas.

For example, in 2009, the pov-erty rate for married white families in Arkansas was 5.4 percent. But the poverty rate for non-married white families was nearly six times higher at 32.1 percent.



PERCENTAGE OF FAMILIES THAT ARE POOR

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40%

Married Families Non-Married Families

5.4%

32.1%

Non-Married Black Families Are Four Times More Likely to Be Poor in Arkansas

In 2009, the poverty rate for married black couples in Arkansas was 12.2 percent, while the pov-erty rate for non-married black families was four times higher at 48.6 percent.




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12.2%

48.6%

Non-Married Hispanic Families Are Twice Times More Likely to Be Poor in Arkansas

In 2009, the poverty rate for Hispanic married families in Arkansas was 25.3 percent, while the poverty rate among non-married families was two times higher at 52.8 percent.




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25.3%

52.8%

Three Steps to Reduce Child Poverty through Marriage

1) Provide information on the benefits of marriage in reducing child poverty and improving child well-being.

2) Reduce anti-marriage penalties in means-tested welfare programs.

3) Promote life-goal-planning, marriage-strengthening, and divorce-reduction programs to increase healthy marriages and reduce divorce and separation.

Marriage is a highly effective institution which greatly decreases parental and child poverty while improving long-term outcomes for children. Conversely, the absence of marriage greatly increases welfare costs and imposes added burdens on taxpayers.

Unfortunately, almost no information on these topics is available in low-income communities. This information deficit should be corrected in the following manner:

• Explain the benefits of marriage in middle and high schools with a high proportion of at-risk youth;

• Create public education campaigns in low-income communities on the benefits of marriage; and,

• Require federally funded birth control clinics to provide information on the benefits of marriage and the skills needed to develop stable families to interested low-income clients.

The Family & Religion Initiative is one of 10 Transformational Initiatives making up The Heritage Foundation’s Leadership for America campaign. For more products and information related to this initiative or to learn more about the Leadership for America campaign, please visit heritage.org.

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