Statistics on Poverty and Education

Content

1. Correlation between poverty and lack of education in the U.S.
2. Correlation between poverty and lack of education elsewhere

1. Correlation between poverty and lack of education in the U.S.

Here’s a graph showing the correlation between poverty and lack of education in the 50 states of the U.S.:

And here’s one with the average income by education level:

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Simple comparisons between children in poor families and children in non-poor families using national datasets indicate that poor children are more likely to do worse on indices of school achievement than non-poor children are. Poor children are twice as likely as non-poor children to have repeated a grade, to have been expelled or suspended from school, or to have dropped out of high school. They are also 1.4 times as likely to be identified as having a learning disability in elementary or high school than their non-poor counterparts. (source)

A study called “The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement” (by Gordon Dahl and Lance Lochner) measured the consequences of growing up poor for a child’s math and reading achievement: a $1,000 increase in parental income raises math test scores by 2.1 percent and reading test scores by 3.6 percent (source).

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Some more data for the U.S. (via Peter Orszag):

(source)

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2. Correlation between poverty and lack of education elsewhere

There’s really no need to say that the poor receive less education and lesser quality education than the rich, and that this puts a heavy burden on the prospects and opportunities of poor children, but the figures below show the extent of the problem:

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Here are some data for the U.K.:

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