Racial wealth gap growing for families with children in U.S.: study

The wealth gaps between black and white families with children, and between Hispanic and black families, have widened in the United States since the Great Recession in 2007-09, even though the long-time gap between black and white families' income, has stayed the same, according to a study posted on the website of Northwestern University on Tuesday, reported Xinhua.

Using data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances (2004-16), the researchers compared the wealth, meaning assets minus debts, of households with children for black, white and Hispanic families from 2004 to 2016. A family's wealth is key to children's future success in education, jobs and opportunities.

The study found that wealth gaps between black and white families with children are larger and have grown faster than those in the general population of all U.S. households. For families with children, gaps between black and white families at the top, bottom and middle of the wealth scale are widening.

While the Great Recession caused wealth losses for most families in all racial and ethnic groups, fewer black families with children regained their lost wealth. Between 2013 and 2016, white families increased their wealth, but black families' wealth continued to decrease, leading to larger racial gaps in 2016 than in 2004.

Hispanic families with children in 2016 -- the latest data available -- had more net worth than black families with children but still far less than white families. While black families had one cent for every dollar of wealth of their white counterparts, Hispanic families had eight cents.

Furthermore, home ownership rates among black families with children dropped by nearly 20 percent in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

The study has been published in Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.