Children represent 24 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. 1 Among all children under 18, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (21 percent) live in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children’s experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ ethnicity and parents’ educational attainment and employment. This fact sheet, which is an update to the series based on the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents – highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.