After a slow increase over the course of two decades, the child poverty rate in the MetroWest region has returned to the year 2000 level and remains 50% below the state level and less than half the rate of the national level. Despite this achievement, significant racial and ethnic disparities continue to be evident, which reflect current and historic differences in socioeconomic status and access to resources, as well as public policies with discriminatory or inequitable outcomes. Poverty, domestic violence and single-parent families are all conditions that can impact children’s ability to thrive, and in our region, children have different burdens to bear depending, in part, on where they live.

Socioeconomic status also plays a critical role in shaping a child’s future. Children raised in poverty are at higher risk for various health and social problems, including difficulty in school, which can diminish their chances for successful adult lives. In 2016-20, about 52,000 children in MetroWest were living in poverty, or 8% of all children under 18. While in some communities in our region very few children are living in poverty, other areas have especially high rates, such as the 16% child poverty rate in Milford. Across the region, poverty rates were much higher among Hispanic (24%) and African American (17%) children than among white (7%) and Asian (7%) children.

Whether a young person is in school or working also is an indicator of future success. In 2016-20, 4% of MetroWest youth between the ages of 16 and 19 were not in school nor working, similar to the state rate and less than the national rate of 7%.

Children in single-parent families are far more likely to grow up in low-income households than those living with two parents. In 2016-20, 25% of families with children under 18 in the MetroWest region were headed by one parent, well below the national rate of 34% and the statewide rate of 32%. In MetroWest, the share was highest among Black or African American (56%) and Hispanic families (52%), followed by white (29%) and Asian (18%) families. Rates were higher for all racial and ethnic groups at the state level.

A healthy pregnancy is one of the earliest factors that shapes a child’s future. Early, high-quality prenatal care can improve chances that pregnancy results in a healthy, full-term baby. In 2020, MetroWest women initiated prenatal care in the first trimester at modestly higher rates than Massachusetts as a whole, but at significantly better rates than the nation as a whole. Rates varied by race and ethnicity: early prenatal care was initiated in 76% of births to Black or African American mothers, 83% of Hispanic or Latina births, 88% of Asian and 89% of white births. These differences mirrored racial and ethnic disparities at the state and national level. These rates have increased slightly since 2016.

Domestic violence has uniquely negative effects on victims and families. There were 2.4 reported victims per 1,000 residents in the region in 2020, or nearly 7,500 reported victims. While this represents an increase from 1.7 per 1,000 in 2000, it also represents a steady decline from a high of 3.6 per 1,000 in 2010. The region’s 2020 rate was lower than Massachusetts’ rate (3.8). The rate was highest in Marlborough (5.3) and lowest in Weston (0.4). Often, domestic violence still goes unreported.