Nearly one in five Tennessee children live in poverty, a measure of well-being that varies sharply by geography.
In rural northwest Lake County, for example, the number of children living below the poverty line is double the state average; meanwhile in wealthy Williamson County, fewer than 4% of children are being raised under such economic strains.
The data, released Tuesday by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, paints an uneven portrait of Tennessee’s children in county-by-county snapshots that also measure rates of low birth-weight babies, educational outcomes, childcare costs, child abuse and family circumstances.
County poverty rates coincide with other stressors facing families with children.
