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Child Poverty rates on the decline in Eagle and Garfield Counties

Colorado Children's Campaign

Child poverty levels declined in back to back years for the first time in more than a decade, according to the Colorado Children’s Campaign.

Garfield and Eagle County have followed in that trend, whereas Pitkin County is still seeing a slight increase.

Poverty is defined as an annual income of less than $24,000 a year for a family of four. The amount of children in this ranking decreased by two percent in Eagle and Garfield counties from 2013 to 2014, but is still higher than it was during the recession.

Colorado Children’s Campaign’s Research Director Sarah Hughes said these numbers are encouraging, but there is still a great deal of progress that needs to be made.

“A lot of our rural communities are still feeling like they’re stuck in the recession and they haven’t experienced the recovery that Denver and some of the other metro communities have seen,” Hughes said.

Pitkin County remains the lowest statewide, at nine percent, because of its high cost of living.

“If you can imagine trying to live in Pitkin County or even Garfield County on that amount of money, that is going to be very difficult if not impossible,” Hughes said.

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