By Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle

California was just one Mississippi away from dead last in a new national ranking of the economic well-being of children, an indicator of poverty and financial instability of families.

Despite a reinvigorated economy, millions of California families are still digging out from the 2008 recession, with wages for many failing to keep up with the cost of living, according to the 2015 Kids Count report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation released Tuesday.

Across the state, 23 percent of children were living in poverty in 2013, the most recent data available, compared with 18 percent in 2008. In Mississippi, which ranked 50th among the states, 34 percent of children were living in poverty at last count. New Mexico came in just above California, at 48th, in economic well-being of children.

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