NCJ Number
137449
Date Published
1991
Length
86 pages
Annotation
This book presents data on how well each State and the United States as a whole perform on a range of eight measures of child and adolescent health, education, and social and economic well-being that generally are comparable across States and are widely regarded as significant and reliable indicators.
Abstract
The data show that children in the United States are at greater risk now than at the beginning of the 1980's; Child poverty increased and persists. By the end of the 1980's, over 12 million children, 20.1 percent of all American children, were growing up in poverty. The figure was 43.8 percent for black children. Births to unmarried teenagers increased over the decade as did chances that a teenager would die a violent death by accident, suicide, or murder. Progress has stalled for several indicators of child well-being, including the portion of infants born low birth weight and the percent of teenagers graduating from high school. Prospects for children improved in the areas of infant mortality and young child death rates during the 1980's. A chart lists States in rank order by each of the eight indicators based on the most recent data available. 52 tables and 4 appendixes