The 33rd edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT® Data Book describes how children in America are in the midst of a mental health crisis, struggling with anxiety and depression at unprecedented levels.
This year’s publication continues to present national and state data across four domains — economic well-being, education, health and family and community — and ranks states in overall child well-being. The report includes pre-pandemic figures as well as more recent statistics, and shares the latest information of its kind available.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought children trauma and tremendous loss over the past two and a half years. As of July 2022, the health crisis had killed more than 1 million people in America, including more than 1,600 children. During this same time span, more than 200,000 kids had lost a parent or primary caregiver to the virus.
These conditions have helped fuel what the U.S. surgeon general has called a mental health pandemic for youth. According to the Data Book, the incidence of anxiety and depression among kids has spiked. Comparing pre-pandemic to the first year of the COVID-19 crisis: The share of children struggling to make it through the day rose nearly 26% — from 9.4% (5.8 million kids) in 2016 to 11.8% (7.3 million kids) in 2020.
This pandemic within a pandemic has also laid bare persistent disparities. Across the United States, 9% of all high schoolers attempted suicide in the years before the most recent federal survey. This rate rises to 12% for Black students, 13% for students of two or more races and 26% for American Indian or Alaska Native high schoolers. Among LGBTQ youth, the statistics are similarly lopsided, with 23% of gay, lesbian or bisexual high schoolers reporting to have attempted suicide compared to just 6% of their heterosexual peers.
The 2022 KIDS COUNT Data Book continues to identify racial and ethnic disparities that persist in America today. Some examples of these findings include:
The stark racial and ethnic disparities shaping American childhoods today — which the KIDS COUNT Data Book series captures year after year — disproportionately result in and contribute to troubling mental health issues among children of color.
Early research indicates that addressing youth mental health needs can reduce or even eliminate pandemic-related stress. Accordingly, the Foundation calls on lawmakers to enact the programs and policies needed to ease mental health burdens on children and their families. They recommend:
In terms of overall child well-being, the top-performing states remained the same as last year, with Massachusetts leading the list, followed by New Hampshire (2) and Minnesota (3). Similarly, the lowest-ranked states remained the same but shuffled in rank. New Mexico fell one spot to 50, Louisiana fell one spot to 49 and Mississippi improved two spots to 48.
View the national data profile or download your state's data profile as a PDF below:
View the 2022 U.S. Data Profile in Spanish or download your state's data profile as a PDF below:
The Foundation calculates a composite index of overall child well-being for each state by combining data across four domains: (1) Economic Well-Being, (2) Education, (3) Health and (4) Family and Community. These scores are then translated into state rankings. Explore overall child well-being in the interactive KIDS COUNT Data Book.
To help children grow into prepared, productive adults, parents need jobs with family-sustaining pay, affordable housing and the ability to invest in their children’s future. Explore economic well-being data in the interactive KIDS COUNT Data Book.
Growing up in poverty is one of the greatest threats to healthy child development. It increases the likelihood that a child will be exposed to factors that can impair brain development and lead to poor academic, cognitive and health outcomes.
Nationally, 17% of all children (12.6 million kids) lived in families with incomes below the poverty line in 2016–20. This statistic has fallen from 21% (15.2 million kids) in 2008–12 and represents 2.6 million fewer children living in poverty.
In 2020, the official poverty level was $26,246 for a family of two adults and two children.
Young people, ages of 16 to 19, who are not in school or working run a higher risk of experiencing negative outcomes as they transition to adulthood. Limited skills and work history — combined with few financial resources to invest in developing the necessary skills or qualifications — can restrict access to good jobs as well as higher wages in the future.
Across the country, 7% of teens (1.2 million youth) were not working or in school in 2016–20 — down from 8% in 2008–12. Minnesota, Nebraska and Rhode Island had the lowest rate of teens in this category while Alaska, Louisiana, Nevada and New Mexico (all 10%) and Puerto Rico (12%) had the highest rates.
Employment insecurity and the accompanying income loss can disrupt daily living and relationships and limit families’ access to resources to invest in their children’s development, which can, in turn, diminish children’s achievement in school and chances of future success.
From 2008–12 to 2016–20, the share of children whose parents lacked secure employment dropped 4 percentage points to 27%. Utah, at 19%, reported the lowest percentage of children in this category while West Virginia, at 35%, posted the highest rate. The share of kids impacted was even higher in the District of Columbia (37%) and Puerto Rico (54%). In total, over 19.7 million kids in America lived in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment in 2016–20.
The early years of children’s lives set the foundation for their lifelong success. Closing significant academic achievement gaps is vital to ensuring that the nation’s future workforce can continue to compete on a global scale. Explore education data in the interactive KIDS COUNT Data Book.
Across America, 86% of high school students graduated on time in the 2018–19 school year — up from 79% in 2010–11. The new rate marks a historic high for the nation, and signals that most kids are keeping their academic careers on track. This is great news now, but experts anticipate that virtual learning and social isolation brought on by the pandemic will likely increase disconnection from school and worsen educational achievement in the coming years.
High-quality preschool programs play an important role in preparing kids for success and lead to higher levels of educational attainment, career advancement and lifelong earnings.
In 2016–20, 47% of all 3- and 4-year-olds across the nation were enrolled in preschool. This statistic is one percentage point lower than reported in 2008–12. At the state level, Connecticut and New Jersey have the highest rates of kids in preschool (63%) and North Dakota the lowest (31%). And, although the District of Columbia is not ranked among states, it posted the best participation rate — 77% — thanks to the city’s offering of free, universal preschool.
Reading proficiency is a critical marker in a child’s educational development. Fourth-graders who are proficient readers are more likely to succeed academically and persist in school.
In 2019, just 34% of public school fourth-graders scored proficient in reading — an improvement of two percentage points since 2009. Nationwide, students of color fared worse, with only 18% of Black students, 20% of American Indian students and 23% of Latino students hitting the reading proficiency mark in 2019.
Good health is central to a child’s overall development and ensuring that kids are born healthy is an important first step toward lifelong success. Explore health data in the interactive KIDS COUNT Data Book.
For the first time in Data Book history, firearm-related fatalities became the leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1 to 19. Large jumps in homicides and drug overdoses also pushed the country’s child and teen death rate to its highest point — 28 deaths per 100,000 kids — in 12 years.
Compared to their uninsured peers, children with medical insurance are more likely to have a defined source for accessing preventive, acute or chronic care. Being insured also enables kids to remain active, healthy and in school while protecting their families financially following a health crisis.
In 2016–20, 95% of kids across America had health insurance — up from 92% in 2008–12. Disaggregated by race and ethnicity, this rate was lowest for American Indian (87% covered) and Latino (92% covered) children and highest for white, Black and Asian and Pacific Islander children (96% covered).
States in the Northeast — Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont — claimed the top three spots in the health domain’s rankings. States from the South — Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi — occupied the bottom six spots on the list.
Children who live in nurturing families and supportive communities have stronger personal connections and realize higher academic achievements. Explore family and community data in the interactive KIDS COUNT Data Book.
High-poverty neighborhoods — where poverty rates for the total population are 30% or more — have a number of barriers and challenges that make it much harder for families to move up the economic ladder. In 2016–20, 9% of children (over 6 million kids) lived in high-poverty areas compared to 13% in 2008–12.
The likelihood of kids growing up in concentrated poverty continues to vary by race and ethnicity. American Indian (24%), Black (22%) and Latino (13%) children were much more likely to have lived in high-poverty areas than their multiracial (8%), Asian and Pacific Islander (4%) and white (3%) peers.
Teenage childbearing can have long-term negative effects for mother and child. Babies born to teens are far more likely to be born preterm and at a low birth weight — and into families with limited educational attainment and economic resources.
In 2020, 158,043 babies were born to mothers ages 15 to 19. This translates into a birth rate of 15 births per 1,000 teens, which is one-fourth the rate in 1990 (60 births per 1,000 teens). At the state level, the teen birth rate ranged from a low of 6 births per 1,000 teens in Massachusetts to a high of 28 births per 1,000 in Arkansas and Mississippi.
Florida, at no. 32, is the highest-ranked southern state in the family and community domain. Utah, New Hampshire and Vermont topped this same list while New Mexico, Louisiana and Mississippi filled in its final ranks.
