Close to 13 million children residing in the United States live in families with incomes below the federal poverty line, a threshold shown to underestimate the financial needs of American households. Here are 25 facts of life the federal poverty rate completely ignores.

Even in countries that are not the world’s richest, high levels of child poverty are shameful and frequently lead to bad outcomes for a society. In the United States, although child poverty has dropped by half over the past 50 years, the current level remains a serious problem. 

Certain factors and circumstances may help keep children out of poverty, while others may push them into poverty. For example, refundable tax credits helped prevent millions of families with children from falling into poverty, while medical care costs and health insurance premiums resulted in more families with children falling into poverty. Here at 15 states where poverty is worse than you think.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey. Childhood poverty refers to the share of children under the age of 18 living in households with incomes below the poverty threshold. The poverty threshold varies by family size and composition. In 2018, the Census Bureau poverty threshold for a family of three with one child under 18 years old was $20,212.

Click here to see how many children live in poverty in your state