2026 State of Childhood Poverty in Florida Report

The Florida Chamber Foundation’s Florida 2030 Blueprint is a strategic roadmap for Florida, centered around six pillars aimed at growing Florida from the 15 to the 10 largest economy in the world by 2030. The Florida Prosperity Initiative is focused on driving this outcome by uniting Florida leaders to cut childhood poverty in half and replace generational poverty and government dependency with self-sufficiency.

Florida is growing, and even as the number of children in the state increases, the number of children in poverty is declining. In fact, childhood poverty in Florida has declined by nearly 200,000 children since the launch of the Florida Prosperity Initiative. Although this is encouraging news, we’ve still got significant work to do to ensure pathways for economic opportunity exist for all Floridians. With the belief that a person’s zip code should not determine their outcomes, we are on a mission to remove barriers to prosperity by better connecting the dots for our state’s most vulnerable. Cutting childhood poverty in half will take collective impact across our economy – focusing on tackling the 10 Root Causes of Poverty, and leveraging the business community’s knowhow, community resources, and focus to drive real solutions and Promising Practices through our nationally recognized “Florida Model.”

This report highlights the latest analysis on the progress we’ve made and areas of opportunity for business leaders, community advocates, and policymakers committed to breaking the cycle of generational poverty.