According to a release from the Louisiana Budget Project, poverty in the state of Louisiana has dropped slightly.
The report says that, according to information released by the U.S. Census Bureau, fewer Louisiana adults and children were living in poverty in 2018 than 2017.
The most significant drop was among children of color, which dropped by 4 percentage points to 43%. This translates to 22,000 fewer black children living below the federal poverty line in 2018.
Louisiana's 18.6% poverty rate, which is down one point from 2017, still ranks as the third-highest in the nation. The 26.2% poverty rate among all children is also the third-highest in the country, behind Mississippi and New Mexico.
"The numbers are trending in the right direction, but low-income families in Louisiana still face far too many barriers to economic opportunity," Louisiana Budget Project Executive Director Jan Moller said.
