Knowledgebase

National Overview: Children and Youth

Quickfacts: A Nationwide Perspective

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids Count Data Center provides a wealth of information on children and youth in the Unites States. We've listed only a few of these statistics below.

• In 2012: 16,397,000 or 23% of children were living in poverty.
• Thirty-five percent of children were living in a single-parent home.
• Eight percent of babies born had a low birth weight
• Four percent of teenagers, 15-19, had a child

Childhood Obesity

• In 2012: 31% of children and teens were overweight or obese nationwide.
• 46% of children and teens do not exercise regularly. 

To view the data for your local area select the State:  http://datacenter.kidscount.org/

Other national statistics:

• 1.5 million children in the US are homeless (Campaign to End Child Homelessness)
• Over 3 million reports of child abuse are made every year. (Childhelp)
• Only 73.2 percent of high school freshmen completed high school in four years in 2006. (High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007).  See page 21 and appendices for state completion rates. (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009064.pdf)

General resources on needs, policies and programs that work

• Raikes Foundation 
• Pathways to Outcomes assemble a wealth of findings from research, practice, theory, and policy about what it takes to improve the lives of children, youth and families, particularly those living in tough neighborhoods.
• Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
• Child Trends provides research, data and analysis on children at all stages of development.
• Future of Children - Quarterly journal of research and analysis
• Kids Count State-by-state data on children from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
• The Urban Institute - Children and Youth publications
• Promising Practices Network on children, families and communities
• Big Ideas for Children

Data on Individual Schools 

• Great Schools
• School Matters
• National Center for Education Statistics