The Annie E. Casey Foundation Releases 2020 KIDS COUNT Data Book

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion today released the 2020 edi­tion of the KIDS COUNT® Data Book, an annu­al­ly pub­lished resource that tracks child well-being nation­al­ly and state by state and ranks the states accordingly.

Read or Down­load the Data Book

As always, the report is based on the lat­est avail­able data for 16 key indi­ca­tors. For the 2020 report, those data are 2018, so they do not reflect cur­rent con­di­tions amidst the COVID-19 cri­sis. The Casey Foun­da­tion plans to explore the effects of the pan­dem­ic on child well-being in a future report but is releas­ing the annu­al Data Book as usu­al to ensure leg­is­la­tors and oth­er pol­i­cy­mak­ers, researchers and advo­cates for chil­dren have the infor­ma­tion they are cus­tom­ar­i­ly able to access at this time of year.

“Work­ing to keep kids healthy and safe has nev­er been more essen­tial,” said Lisa Hamil­ton, pres­i­dent and CEO of the Casey Foun­da­tion. ​“Hav­ing con­sis­tent, reli­able data to guide our deci­sions will be crit­i­cal as we con­tin­ue seek­ing to ensure the well-being of chil­dren, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties through­out this chal­leng­ing time and beyond.”

The 2020 Data Book shows improve­ment nation­al­ly on 11 indi­ca­tors in the KIDS COUNT Index; three indi­ca­tors stayed the same and two wors­ened. Among the states, Mass­a­chu­setts ranked first, New Hamp­shire sec­ond and Min­neso­ta third for child well-being. Louisiana, Mis­sis­sip­pi and New Mex­i­co were 48^th, 49^th and 50^th respectively.

The 2020 KIDS COUNT Data Book may be accessed at www​.aecf​.org. Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion is avail­able at www​.aecf​.org/​d​a​t​abook. Tools to cre­ate maps and graphs illus­trat­ing the data may be found at the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter.