This data snapshot reports trend data for each of the years from October 1997 - October 2015 on the number of juveniles in residential placement and the types of facilities in which they were housed (private, local, and state), and data for only 2015 indicate the placement rate, demographic characteristics of youth in residential placement, and the overall minority rate of placement compared with white youth.
The number of juveniles in residential placement in 2015 was 55 percent less than in 1999, declining from a peak of 107, 493 in 1999 to a low of 48,043 in 2015. Since 2011, locally operated facilities have held the greatest proportion of youth in placement compared to private and state facilities. For 2015, percentages of youth in residential placement are shown by race/ethnicity, gender, and age. Minority youth accounted for 69 percent of youth in residential placement in 2015. Despite declines in placement rates for every race, the minority rate was still 2.7 times the rate for white youth in 2015. The national placement rate for youth in residential facilities was 152 per 100,000 youth; the rates in 28 states and the District of Columbia were greater. 5 figures