Potential Benefits of Marriage for Cohabiting Couples with Children

• In 2005, 82 percent of young children were fully immunized (referred to as combined series vaccination 4:3:1:3 by health professionals), an increase of 13 percentage points since 1994. 
• The proportion of non-Hispanic black children receiving the combined series plus hepatitis B and varicella (4:3:1:3:3:1) vaccinations has matched the national rate for the first time. 
• The proportion of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving the combined series (4:3:1:3) vaccines increased from 69 percent to 82 percent between 1994 and 2005.
• Vaccination rates for the hepatitis B vaccine increased rapidly between 1994 and 2005, from 37 percent to 93 percent.

• In 2005, 17 percent of children lived in families with incomes below the poverty line - a percentage that had not changed since 2003. 
• The groups most likely to be living in poor families included black and Hispanic children, children living in single-mother families, and children under age 6. 
• Children under 18 are much more likely than adults to be poor.
• Being raised in poverty ($19,806 in 2005 for a family of four with two children) places children at higher risk for a wide range of problems.