The Florida Chamber Foundation’s Prosperity Initiative today published a series of maps that outline the childhood poverty numbers and rate for every zip code in every county in the state of Florida. The maps are intended to provide business leaders, elected officials, and community leaders with valuable data to identify areas where the highest cases of poverty exist. The maps are available at www.floridachamber.com/ProsperityMaps.

“Florida has 870,505 children living in poverty; that’s 21.3% of all of Florida’s children,” said Florida Chamber President, Mark Wilson. “half of those children live in just 150 of Florida’s 983 zip codes. The Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2030 Blueprint goal is to reduce the number of children in Florida living in poverty to less than 10 percent in the next ten years. To accomplish that goal, Florida’s business community will lead the way, working with elected officials, and non-profit agencies to create pathways to prosperity for all Floridians.”

“No child in Florida should go to bed without knowing if they will eat tomorrow. Sadly, for too many children in Florida, that is a reality.” said Karen Moore, CEO of The Moore Agency and Florida Chamber Foundation Trustee. “Through the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Prosperity Initiative, Florida’s businesses have the opportunity to lead in helping Florida’s children move from poverty into prosperity.

“Finding long lasting solutions to poverty is not an easy task but identifying the zip codes who could benefit the most is a great first step,” said Michael Williams, Director of the Florida Prosperity Initiative. “These maps can be used by business and community leaders to show where the root causes of poverty are affecting the lives of young Floridians.”

The Florida Chamber Foundation uses data available from the American Community Survey conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau; the source for detailed population and housing information about our nation.

To request zip code specific data, please contact Michael Williams at mwilliams@flfoundation.org.

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