Racial and ethnic disparities are evident across many indicators related to child well-being, starting with prenatal care and extending through child poverty and rates of single-parent families.

Early prenatal care helps ensure a healthy start in life. In Westchester County, 65% of African American, 69% of Hispanic mothers, and 75% of mothers identifying as other racial/ethnic groups in Westchester County received early prenatal care compared to 84% of White mothers.

Infant mortality is highest among African American babies, with 6.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021-23, followed by Hispanics at 3.5 and Whites at 1.4 – all above the rate for Asians at 0.5.

Structural racism in the form of lower levels of access to prenatal care, lower levels of adequate health insurance, discriminatory treatment by health care providers, and the racism that expectant mothers experience in their daily lives at work and in their neighborhoods are all factors contributing to these disparities.

Poverty rates are 3 times higher for Hispanic and African American children in Westchester County than for White children. In 2020-24, 17% of Hispanic children and 19% of African American children in were living in poverty, compared to 5% of White children.

Higher rates of single parent families can be one factor contributing to poverty. In 2020-24, 65% of African American families were headed by single parents, as were 45% of Hispanic families, 22% of White families and 12% of Asian families.

Current and historic policies have placed particular strain on African American and Hispanic families, including criminal justice and incarceration policies, disinvestment in communities of color, ineffective and/or underfunded schools and discrimination in the job market.

Other child well-being indicators include:

Child care: In 2024, 2.4%, or about 3,700 children, participated in subsidized child care – a high since 2010 and more than the 1.5% rate statewide.

Disengaged youth: In 2020-24, 6% of Westchester County youth were neither working nor in school, lower than the state and nation (both 7%) and lower than 2010-14 when the rate was 7%.