West Virginia is the state with the most underprivileged children in new 2024 study

WHEELING, W.Va. ( WTRF ) — West Virginia was ranked with the most underprivileged children and a new study puts the Mountain State low in other rankings as well.

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 .

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.

West Virginia is the state with the most underprivileged children, in part because it has the second-highest share of children in low-income households where no adults work and the second-highest share of children whose parents lack secure employment, according to WalletHub. This has resulted in over 22% of children in the state living in households whose incomes are below the poverty line.

WalletHub also says that West Virginia has a high share of children who don’t live with their parents, with the highest percentage in the country of children in foster care and the highest percentage living only with their grandparents.

“Of course, both foster parents and grandparents can be loving, responsible caregivers, but the children still suffer difficult circumstances to end up living with them in the first place,” WalletHub said.

West Virginia has the second-highest share of maltreated children in the nation, along with the highest share of 9th-12th-graders who felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two consecutive weeks during the past year, according to the study. In addition, West Virginia has the second-highest share of kids ages 16 to 19 who are neither enrolled in school nor employed.

Welfare of Children in West Virginia (1=Most; 25=Avg.):

• Overall Rank: 1 ^st
• 4 ^th – % of Children in Households with Below-Poverty Income
• 2 ^nd – % of Maltreated Children
• 8 ^th – Child Food-Insecurity Rate
• 4 ^th – Infant Mortality Rate
• 1 ^st – % of Children in Foster Care
• 21 ^st – % of Children in Single-Parent Families
• 19 ^th – Child & Youth Homeless Rate

You can view the full report here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com.