This brief confirms that the average eighth-grade math scores nationwide have reached an all-time high, and teen smoking is at its lowest since 1977, when data collection began.
However, the report also shows that the percentage of children whose parents have secure employment is at its lowest since 1996, and the percentage of children living in poverty is at its highest since 1998 at 19 percent.
The brief, which is a compendium of such statistics, also reports that health insurance coverage rates for children have increased, and that children with health insurance continue to have better access to health care than those without it. Between 2007 and 2008, the percentage of children who had public health insurance increased from 31 percent to 33 percent. Hispanic children were less likely to have health insurance compared with their white, non-Hispanic, and black counterparts in 2008.
Children classified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as “food insecure” increased from 17 percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2008, according to the brief.
There were 74.5 million children in the United States as of 2009 according to the report, a number that is projected to increase to 101.6 million by 2050.
Statistics on other child well-being indicators such as behavior, education and health are detailed in the brief.
Free, 24 pages. http://childstats.gov/pdf/ac2010/ac_10.pdf.
