
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993                   TAG: 9303310183
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short

CHILD POVERTY FALLS FASTEST IN SOUTH VIRGINIA'S GAINS RANK 2ND IN NATION

Child poverty has climbed most quickly in the Midwest and fallen fastest in the South in the past two decades, according to a study released Tuesday.

The report showed Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois experienced the sharpest growth in child poverty in the 1970s and 1980s.

Southern states, some of which still have relatively high child poverty rates, nonetheless registered significant declines.

Virginia ranked second in the nation in pulling children out of poverty over the past two decades, the study showed.

The state's child poverty rate dropped by 27.7 percent from 1969 to 1989, second to North Carolina's 28.3 percent drop. About 13 percent of Virginia's children live in poverty. A dozen other states have lower poverty rates.

The report was done by Tufts University's Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy. The center's director, J. Larry Brown, said the report reflected broader economic trends.

"The decline in the manufacturing base, the shift of the last 10 to 20 years, particularly hit the Midwest hard," Brown said. "The drain of the industrial states accrued to the benefit of the Southern states."

The report analyzed U.S. Census data from 1959 to 1989, the most recent year for which state-by-state child poverty figures were available.

by CNB