This post looks at the percent of children 6 to 17 who are engaged in extracurricular activities and also their school outcomes by poverty status. Not surprisingly, children who are in poverty are less likely to participate in extracurricular activities and have worse school outcomes than their more affluent counterparts. Children from affluent families have more opportunities and better school outcomes.

When it comes to extracurricular activities, children from families from 200 percent of the poverty level are, on average, twice as likely to be involved in sports as their counterparts at the poverty level. Figure 1, shows that affluent children are much more likely to be involved in sports.

Figure 2, below, shows that children at 200 percent of the poverty level are, on average, 1.8 times as likely to be involved in clubs.

Figure 3, below, shows that children at the poverty level are almost half as likely to be involved in after school lessons.

When it comes to school outcomes, more affluent children have better school outcomes than their poorer counterparts. For example, Figure 4 shows that poor children are almost half as likely to be in a gifted program.

Figure 5 shows that children at the poverty level are more than two times as likely to ever repeat a grade.

Finally, figure 6 shows that children at the poverty level are almost twice as likely to ever be suspended.

The takeaway from this brief analysis is that affluent children are more likely to participate in sports, clubs, and after school lessons. Also affluent children have better school outcomes. More specifically, they are more likely to be in a gifted program, they are less likely to ever repeat a grade, and they are less likely to ever be suspended.

Source: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2014/demo/2014-childs-day.html