More than 20% of North Shore children living in poverty. Vast disparity on Staten Island persists.

New York’s Staten Island. According to a new analysis, the economic inequality that has long afflicted the borough is still present, with children on Staten Island’s North Shore more than twice as likely to be living in poverty as those on the South Shore.

The notable disparities in child poverty rates across the borough in recent years were brought to light in a biennial report released by the Citizens Committee for Children of New York (CCC), one of the city’s top child advocacy groups.

The U.S. Census Bureau states that the determination of poverty status is based on comparing annual income to a series of monetary values, or poverty thresholds, which differ depending on the size of the family, the number of children, and the age of the householder.

In order to find patterns in the socioeconomic circumstances for children across New York City, researchers examined data from the American Community Surveys (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. They discovered that some neighborhoods still face challenges and would profit from more funding and legislative changes aimed at enhancing the lives of their youngest citizens.

According to the survey, New York City is a cultural and economic center that encourages people to pursue their goals. Although everyone should have access to opportunities here, the city has long struggled with issues of affordability and income disparity.

The research goes on to say that the city’s unequal recovery from the Great Recession in the 2010s highlights this issue, which has persisted throughout the past few decades. The intricate relationship between recovery and persistent adversity emphasizes how critical it is to address income inequality and how it affects an inclusive recovery.

The 2022 ACS, the most recent year for which data was available at the time of the report’s publishing, showed that about 15,000 children throughout Staten Island were living in poverty, accounting for 14.1% of the borough’s total child population.

However, families in some areas of the borough experience financial hardship at a significantly higher incidence than others, as has been the case for decades.

The percentage of children living in poverty on the North Shore was approximately 20.5%, which was far higher than the Mid-Island average of 12.6% and the South Shore average of 8.7%.

The borough’s persistent discrepancy in child poverty rates can be explained by other measures included in the paper, such as parental employment volatility and median income for households with children.

The North Shore had a parental employment instability rate of 31.3%, which was more than twice as high as the South Shore’s 13.9% rate and more than five percentage points higher than the Mid-Island average of 25.9%.

Families have less money to invest in their children’s futures because of the higher prevalence of job insecurity and the lower-paid positions held by many North Shore residents, who are more concerned with putting food on the table and paying their rent.

According to the report, the North Shore’s median income for families with children was $93,521, which is 31.2% less than the South Shore’s $136,027 and 20.8% less than Mid-Island’s $117,981.

More Data Stories:

• New York City added 86K jobs in past year: These industries saw the most job growth

• Number of Italians, Irish on Staten Island continues steep decline, new data shows

• Shifting demographics on Staten Island: Here are the fastest growing ethnic groups

• As poverty drops across NYC, these boroughs rates remain above national average, new data shows

• More than 15K NYC residents evicted in 2024; These Staten Island neighborhoods were most impacted