State Overview and Findings

Children as individuals

If Oklahoma had only 100 children, eleven would be American Indian, ten would be African American, one would be Asian. Most of the rest would be White. Regardless of their race, eight would be Hispanic or Latino. If Oklahoma had only 100 children, twenty would live in families so poor they could not provide that child with an adequate diet. Six of those poor children would be under the age of five. If Oklahoma had only 100 children, at least six would live with a significant disability. Four of those children would be mentally disabled, probably mentally retarded. If Oklahoma had only 100 children, we would have to take care of each one. We would have none to spare. Oklahoma has only 892,360 children. We have to take care of each one. We have none to spare.

(A pdf file with this narrative, plus graphic maps and charts, is available for download.)

Children remain the strength, promise and future of Oklahoma. While Oklahoma’s child population decreased between 1980 (854,884) and 1990 (837,007), by 2000 it had increased substantially to almost nine hundred thousand (892,360) children. One in four (25.9%) Oklahomans is under the age of eighteen (18). Boys slightly outnumber girls (51.3%, to 48.7%).

Racial categories were altered significantly between the current census and the prior ones, making comparisons over time difficult. In a major change from Census 1990, Census 2000 asked respondents to report one or more races. In Oklahoma almost sixty-five thousand children (63,737, or 7.1%) were categorized as being of two or more races. The remaining children were identified as having only one racial identity: White, African American, American Indian, Asian, Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or other. Composing about two-thirds (67.6%, or 603,525) of Oklahoma’s children, the largest single race in Oklahoma remains White.

Children remain the strength, promise and future of Oklahoma. While Oklahoma’s child population decreased between 1980 (854,884) and 1990 (837,007), by 2000 it had increased substantially to almost nine hundred thousand (892,360) children. One in four (25.9%) Oklahomans is under the age of eighteen (18). Boys slightly outnumber girls (51.3%, to 48.7%).

Racial categories were altered significantly between the current census and the prior ones, making comparisons over time difficult. In a major change from Census 1990, Census 2000 asked respondents to report one or more races. In Oklahoma almost sixty-five thousand children (63,737, or 7.1%) were categorized as being of two or more races. The remaining children were identified as having only one racial identity: White, African American, American Indian, Asian, Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or other. Composing about two-thirds (67.6%, or 603,525) of Oklahoma’s children, the largest single race in Oklahoma remains White.

The largest single non-White race of Oklahoma children is American Indian (11.0%, or 98,144). The fastest growing segment of Oklahoma’s young population, Hispanic or Latino children which may be of any race, now number over seventy thousand (70,078, or 7.9%).

The Oklahoma KIDS COUNT Factbook begins its measure of individual child well-being with a comprehensive account of children living in poverty. Poverty among children is more than an inconvenience. Being poor means living in a family unable to purchase enough food for an adequate diet. Poor children are more likely than non-poor children to stay too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer, to score low on standardized tests, to drop out of school, to receive little health care, and to die during their childhood.

The immediately preceding edition of this Oklahoma KIDS COUNT series took an initial look at how poor Oklahoma children were faring under the 1996 federal welfare reform effort, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (see, Oklahoma KIDS COUNT Factbook 2002). Census 2000 enables this edition of the Oklahoma KIDS COUNT series to generate a detailed portrait of poverty for Oklahoma and all seventy-seven Oklahoma counties.

One in every five (19.6%) Oklahoma children, more than one hundred seventy thousand (171,929), lives in poverty. Oklahoma’s poverty rate for children is higher than that for all children in the United States (16.6%), placing Oklahoma near the bottom (41st) of the national rankings. Only nine states (New York, Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia, New Mexico, Louisiana and Mississippi) have a larger share of children living in poverty than Oklahoma. Among Oklahoma counties the proportion of children living in poverty ranges from the lowest and best rate found in Canadian County (10%) to the highest and worst rate almost four times higher found in Harmon County (38.2%).

Problems associated with having few resources are exacerbated for those living far below the federal poverty line. More than seventy thousand (70,851, or 8.1%) Oklahoma children live in extreme poverty, existing on family incomes which fail to reach even half of a poverty income. Rates of children living in extreme poverty in Oklahoma range from a low of 3.5% in Alfalfa County to a high of 24.0% in Harmon County. While poverty affects all ages, over one-third (35.0%) of its Oklahoma victims are children. Even then child impoverishment is less than even-handed. Child poverty discriminates against Oklahoma’s very youngest, those who are not White, and children living with only one parent.

Children who experience poverty during their preschool years have less of a chance for success than children and adolescents who experience poverty only in their later years. Oklahoma’s youngest are Oklahoma’s poorest (23.0%) with more than fifty thousand (53,201) infants, toddlers and preschoolers under the age of five living in poverty. Cleveland County and Rogers County share the lowest and best poverty rate (12.9%) among their youngest children. The highest and worst rate of poverty among very young children is found in Latimer County where two of every five (41.0%) infants, toddlers and preschool children under the age of five live in poverty.

Oklahoma child poverty is racist. Most non-White children have significantly higher poverty rates than those who are White (14.8%). In Oklahoma, two of every five (39.4%) African American children and one of every four (26.6%) American Indian children live in poverty. Only Asian, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander children have a lower poverty rate (12.9%) than White children (14.8%). Almost one of every three (30.9%) Hispanic or Latino children, who may be of any race, live in poverty. Poverty rates for non-White children reach almost ninety percent (88.9%) for African American children in Mayes County. All (100.0%) American Indian children in Cimarron County and all (100.0%) Asian, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander children in Harmon, Hughes, and Tillman counties were counted as poor by Census 2000.
One in every ten (10.8%) children living in married-couple families is poor. The burden of poverty increases substantially for children living in single parent families. One in every four (25.8%) children is living in poverty if their family is headed by a single male. One in every two (45.7%) children is living in poverty if their family is headed by a single female.

Poverty rates become extreme when considering overlapping characteristics. Oklahoma poverty rates exceed sixty percent (60.9%) among very young non-White children living in single parent families headed by a female.Comparable rates across Oklahoma counties equal or exceed seventy-five percent in fourteen Oklahoma counties (Caddo, 77.9%; Choctaw, 75.0%; Cotton, 93.1%; Custer, 91.9%; Ellis, 100.0%; Johnston, 85.7%; Latimer, 86.9%; Major, 88.5%; Marshall, 91.7%; Okfuskee, 84.9%; Roger Mills, 83.3%; Stephens, 77.8%; Texas, 78.6%; and Tillman, 82.7%).

The geography and intensity of poverty shifts according to who is poor. Understanding Oklahoma child poverty requires that comparisons be made to impoverishment in the general population and between various subcategories of poor children. The comparisons displayed in the four maps (see pdf file) reveal that the worst pockets of poverty deepen and move around the state as poverty by age, race and family type are specifically displayed.

This edition of the Oklahoma KIDS COUNT Factbook concludes its measure of individual child well-being by surveying childhood experience at three strikingly different developmental stages–early childhood, school years and young adulthood.

High quality early childhood care and education experiences are vital to a child’s future. An earlier edition of this Oklahoma KIDS COUNT series focused on early childhood care and education, reporting on the connections between early experiences and a young child’s brain development (see, Oklahoma KIDS COUNT Factbook 2001). Currently, about half (49.3%) of all three and four year old children in the United States begin their education early by attending nursery school, preschool or kindergarten. Ranking twenty-eighth (28th) with 45.5% of three and four year old children attending such programs, Oklahoma falls near the middle of all states. Comparable county rates range from about one-fourth (25.6%) in Cimarron County to two-thirds (67.0%) in Woods County.

The discovery that a child has a disability makes a profound impact on the child, their family, their school and their community. Such a child can experience a minor struggle or a major upheaval. The common reality is that a child with a serious disability may not be able to attend school regularly, may regress between school years, is rarely placed in appropriate child care or may be kept isolated from children without disabilities. Great rewards result when good parenting, quality child care, specially designed instruction and reasonable accommodations help such a child acquire social skills, appropriate education and a hopeful future. In Oklahoma, more than thirty-five thousand (35,033) children from the age of five through fifteen have a disability. Currently, a small percentage (5.8%) of all five through fifteen year old children in the United States have one or more disabilities. Ranking thirty-eighth (38th) with 6.4% of five through fifteen year old children having at least one disability, Oklahoma is in the lower half of all states. Child disability rates are lowest (2.9%) in Cimarron County and highest (10.7%) in Pittsburg County. Almost a quarter (22.2%) of Oklahoma’s children who have a disability have more than one. Mental disability is the most common (60.7%) childhood disability in Oklahoma.

Getting a good start as a young adult is vital to lifelong success. The vulnerable young people who are neither in school nor in the work force are typically marginalized teenagers undergoing a difficult transition into adulthood. Education is critical to finding and keeping a good job. Those who spend their young adult years unemployed and out of school have a hard time finding and keeping a job later in life. Almost one in ten (9.3%) Oklahoma youth from the ages of sixteen through nineteen are not engaged in either work or school, resulting in nearly twenty thousand (19,758) idle youth. About the same proportion (8.9%) of teens are idle in the United States. Oklahoma ranks thirty-third (33rd) in the share of teens who are not engaged in either work or school. Among Oklahoma counties the proportion of idle teens ranges from the lowest and best rate of two percent (2.0%) in Grant County to the highest and worst rate of almost seventeen percent (16.9%) in Okfuskee County. Most (51.8%) of Oklahoma’s idle teens are both high school dropouts and outside of the labor force.

Children in their Families