The KIDS COUNT Data Book features the latest data on child well-being for every state, the District of Columbia and the nation. This information is available in the newly redesigned KIDS COUNT Data Center, which also contains the most recent national, state and local data on hundreds of measures of child well-being. Data Center users can create rankings, maps and graphs for use in publications and on websites, and view real-time information on mobile devices.
As the nation’s economy recovers, America’s children are showing some signs of improvement despite an ever-growing poverty rate, according to new data in the 2013 KIDS COUNT® Data Book.
Children continue to progress in the areas of education and health. From roughly 2005 to 2011, the teen birth rate dropped by 15 percent to a historic low. The rate of high school students not graduating in four years saw an almost 20 percent decline, as did the child and teen death rate. The percentage of children without health insurance decreased by 30 percent.
Although the economic well-being of the nation’s children improved slightly from 2010 to 2011, the negative impact of the recession remains evident. In 2011, the child poverty rate stood at 23 percent, or 16.4 million children — an increase of 3 million since 2005. The number of children living in households spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing — more than 29 million in 2011 — saw minor improvement from the previous year, but was still about 2 million more than in 2005. Similarly, the number of children whose parents lacked full-time, year-round employment was nearly 20 percent higher than in 2008.
The 2013 Data Book also examines how America’s youngest children are faring, adding to the ongoing national conversation on early childhood education. In particular, younger children are disproportionately affected by the lingering effects of the recession: The poverty rate among children younger than 3 is 26 percent; among 3- to 5-year-olds, it is 25 percent — higher than the national average for all kids.
Population of focus: Children in the United States
Links to resource:
- Full report — 2013 KIDS COUNT® Data Book (pdf)
- KIDS COUNT Data Center
- National Fact Sheet (pdf)
- National Fact Sheet in Spanish (pdf)
- KIDS COUNT Data Book website
Date: 2013
Organization: Annie E. Casey Foundation