South Carolina Ranks Among the 15 States with the Most Underprivileged Children

ChildrenPhoto byPhoto by Rebecca Zaal

With August being Child Support Awareness Month and 1 in 6 children in the U.S. living in poverty, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the States With the Most Underprivileged Children in 2024, as well as expert commentary, to show where we need to improve conditions for our nation’s youth.

WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 25 key metrics. The data set ranges from the share of children in households with below-poverty income to the share of maltreated children to the rates of child mortality and food insecurity.

Welfare of Children in South Carolina (1=Most; 25=Avg.):

• Overall Rank: 12^th
• 10^th – % of Children in Households with Below-Poverty Income
• 7^th – % of Maltreated Children
• 27^th – Child Food-Insecurity Rate
• 21^st – % of Uninsured Children
• 12^th – Infant Mortality Rate
• 7^th – % of Children in Single-Parent Families

Children in Foster Care

Most

• T-1. West Virginia
• T-1. Alaska
• T-1. Montana
• 4. Kansas
• 5. Maine

Fewest

• 47. Virginia
• 48. Maryland
• 49. Delaware
• 50. Utah
• 51. New Jersey

Methodology

In order to assess the living and economic conditions of children across the nation, WalletHub compared the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions: 1) Socio-economic Welfare, 2) Health and 3) Education.

We evaluated those dimensions using 25 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the worst conditions for children. Except where noted otherwise, all references to “children” in the metrics below refer to the population aged 0 to 17.

Finally, we determined each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.