Children raised in impoverished environments are at higher risk for a wide variety of health and social problems, including poor performance in school. The challenges they face in childhood can diminish their chances for successful adult lives.

In 2016-20, about 51,600 children in MetroWest were living in poverty, or 8% of all children under 18. This was down slightly from 10% in 2011-15. The region's rate was lower than the state as a whole (12%), and well below the national rate of 17%.

Worcester County had the highest child poverty rate (11%) in 2016-20, followed by Middlesex (8%) and Norfolk (5%). Milford (16%), Waltham (12%) and Framingham (11%) had rates significantly higher than the rest of the region. Sample sizes for most other communities in the region were too small to report reliably. For comparison, the 2016-20 child poverty rate in Boston was 25%.

Poverty status is not reported for people in institutions, including college dormitories and military barracks, and people in living situations without conventional housing.

The multiyear figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined 5 years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with 3 asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.