Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
The largest annual collection of indicators on the health, behavior and circumstances of American youth was released this week by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
“America’s Children” compiles the most recent national figures (in most cases, 2009) about the 75 million youth between ages zero and 17 in the United States in seven different domains. They are: family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.
Among the notable changes found in this year’s edition:
Poverty: The number of children living in poverty was up from 19 percent in 2008 to 20 percent in 2009, and the percentage of children living in a house deemed “food insecure,” went from 22 to 23 percent during that same time frame. Meanwhile, the number of children living with at least one parent who is employed full time dropped from 75 percent to 72 percent.
Babies: 76 percent of infants received the standard array of immunizations in 2008; by 2009, that figured had dropped to 70 percent.
Health: The percentage of children between six and 19 rose from 17 to 19 percent. The percentage of youth with asthma continued to rise – up from 9 to 10 percent; in 1980, only four percent of children had asthma.
The number of youths living in dangerously polluted places has declined significantly in a year. The number of youth living in counties where one or more pollutants are above allowable levels dropped from 69 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009.
Victimization: The rate of 12- to 17-year-olds who were victimized by serious violent crime dropped from 12 per 1,000 to 10 per 1,000.
Violence: The rate of 12- to 17-year-olds involved in the commission of serious violent crimes is down from 14 per 1,000 to 11 per 1,000.
Click here to access the entire report.
