Highlights

America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2003 is the seventh annual report to the Nation on the condition of children in America. Nine contextual measures describe the changing population, family, and environmental context in which children are living, and 25 indicators depict the well-being of children in the areas of economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education. This year’s report has a special section featuring decennial census data that portrays changes in the lives of America’s children from 1990 to 2000 for all States and the District of Columbia for nine indicators.

It is noteworthy that this year America’s Children introduces an overweight indicator as a new measure of children’s health. Children in America are more likely to be overweight than in previous years, and there are significant differences between boys and girls, as well as among racial and ethnic groups. The prevalence of overweight children has emerged as a serious public health concern; tracking this indicator in America’s Children provides data on an essential dimension of child well-being. This year’s report reveals significant progress in several other dimensions of child well-being. Adolescents are more likely to take honors courses, children overall are less likely to die in infancy or in adolescence, and young women have continued the downward trend of giving birth in adolescence. After a steady, decades-long decline, the share of children with married parents has remained unchanged since 1996. In light of the large body of research linking family structure to many of the other indicators in this report, this is an important finding. Less progress, however, has been realized in the economic security of children. After many years of decline, the poverty rate remained stable. In addition, the percentage of children with a parent employed full time declined slightly, and the percentage of households with children that had any housing problems has maintained the same rate since 1995. Yet, the percentage of children covered by health insurance maintained the all-time high. These are some of the highlights gleaned from America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2003.

Part I: Population and Family Characteristics

• In 2001, there were 72.6 million children under age 18 in the United States, or 25 percent of the population, down from a peak of 36 percent at the end of the baby boom (1964). Children are projected to remain a substantial percentage of the total population, and are projected to comprise 24 percent of the population in 2020.
• The racial and ethnic diversity of America’s children continues to increase. In 2000, 64 percent of U.S. children were White, non-Hispanic; 15 percent were Black, non-Hispanic; 4 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander; and 1 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native. The proportion of Hispanic children has increased faster than that of any other racial and ethnic group, growing from 9 percent of the child population in 1980 to 16 percent in 2000.
• Between 1980 and 1994, the rate of childbearing by unmarried women rose sharply for women of all ages. For all age groups combined, this trend ended in 1994. Birth rates for unmarried teenagers have dropped considerably since 1994, while increases in rates for women in their 20s and older have slowed. In 2001, the overall birth rate was 44 births per 1,000 unmarried women ages 15-44.
• In 2002, 69 percent of children under age 18 lived with two married parents, down from 77 percent in 1980. However, the percentage has remained stable since 1995, ending a decades-long downward trend.
• Children’s exposure to secondhand smoke, as indicated by blood cotinine levels, dropped between 1988-1994 and 1999-2000. Overall, 64 percent of children ages 4 to 11 had cotinine in their blood in 1999-2000, down from 88 percent in 1988-1994. In 1999-2000, 18 percent had blood cotinine levels more than 1.0 nanograms per milliliter, down from 26 percent in 1988-1994.

Part II: Indicators of Children's Well-Being

• The poverty rate for children living with family members has decreased substantially since 1993, when it reached a high of 22 percent. The rate decreased to 16 percent in 2000 and has remained stable since.
• Despite the stall in the overall decline in child poverty, the rate continued to decline for Black children in female-householder families (47 percent in 2001 compared with 49 percent in 2000).
• In 2001, 36 percent of U.S. households with children had one or more of the following three housing problems: physically inadequate housing, crowded housing, or housing that cost more than 30 percent of the household income. Fueled by rising housing costs, this rate rose from 30 percent in 1978 to 36 percent in 1995, and has remained stable since.
• In 2001, the percentage of children covered by health insurance maintained the all-time high of 88 percent that was attained in 2000. While government health insurance coverage has continued its upward trend since 1999, the proportion of children covered by private health insurance dropped slightly in 2001, reversing the upward trend since 1994.

• The proportion of children ages 6 to 18 who were overweight increased from 6 percent in 1976-1980 to 15 percent in 1999-2000. Racial, ethnic, and gender disparities exist, such that in 1999-2000, Black, non-Hispanic girls and Mexican American boys were at particularly high risk of being overweight (24 percent and 29 percent, respectively).
• The infant mortality rate has decreased steadily from a high of 10.9 deaths per 1,000 births in 1983 to a low of 6.9 deaths per 1,000 births in 2000. Infant mortality has dropped for all racial and ethnic groups since 1983, but substantial racial and ethnic disparities persist, with the Black, non-Hispanic infant mortality rate consistently higher than that of other racial or ethnic groups.
• Adolescent mortality has steadily declined throughout the 1990s, from 89 deaths per 100,000 in 1991 to an all-time low of 67 deaths per 100,000 in 2000.
• Deaths from firearm injuries among adolescents declined between 1994 and 2000, particularly among Black and Hispanic males. For example, from 1994 to 2000, the firearm homicide rate declined from 126 to 52 deaths per 100,000 Black males and from 49 to 22 deaths per 100,000 Hispanic males.
• The birth rate for adolescents continued to decline in 2001 to 25 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 17, representing the lowest rate ever recorded.
• The decrease in adolescent births is apparent for all racial and ethnic groups and is notable among Black adolescents. The birth rate among Black, non- Hispanic females ages 15 to 17 dropped by nearly half between 1991 and 2001 (from 86 to 45 births per 1,000, respectively), completely reversing the increase from 1986 to 1991.

• In 2002, daily cigarette use among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders reached its lowest point since the beginning of the Monitoring the Future Survey (5 percent, 10 percent, and 17 percent, respectively), continuing the downward trend that began in 1997 for 12th-graders and in 1996 for 10th- and 8th-graders.
• From 2001 to 2002, the proportion of 10th-graders reporting episodic heavy drinking (i.e., having at least five drinks in a row at least once in the previous 2 weeks) declined from 25 percent to 22 percent. Rates remained stable from 2001 to 2002 among 8th- and 12th-graders, with 12 and 29 percent, respectively, reporting this type of alcohol consumption in 2002.
• Between 2001 and 2002, illicit drug use in the past 30 days declined from 23 percent to 21 percent among 10th-graders. One-quarter of 12th-graders and one-tenth of 8th-graders reported past-30-day illicit drug use in 2002, unchanged from the previous year.

Education Indicators

• The percentage of high school graduates who had taken honors-level English courses increased from 29 percent in 1998 to 34 percent in 2000. The percentage of 2000 high school graduates taking advanced mathematics, science, English, and foreign language courses has increased significantly since 1982.
• In 2002, the percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who attained a bachelor’s degree or higher remained at an all-time high of 29 percent. The percentage of White, non-Hispanic 25- to 29-year-olds with a bachelor’s degree increased from 33 percent in 2001 to 36 percent in 2002.

• In 2000, 68 percent of children under 18 years old lived in married-couple families, down from 72 percent in 1990. The decline in children living in married-couple families occurred in all States in the Nation, with several States showing a decrease of about 7 percentage points. New Jersey had a small decrease (1.7 percentage points), from 74 percent in 1990 to 72 percent in 2000.
• In 2000, 19 percent of children lived in crowded housing, up from 16 percent a decade earlier. In Nevada, a rapidly-growing State, the proportion of children living in crowded housing increased from 20 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2000, the largest increase in the Nation. However, the largest decrease was found in Texas, where the rate decreased from 25 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2000.
• Nationally, the proportion of children ages 3 to 5 enrolled in preprimary education rose from 42 percent in 1990 to 61 percent in 2000, representing an increase of 19 percentage points. Geographic variation in preprimary education among children ages 3 to 5 is apparent, with most of the smaller increases clustered among the Western states. Georgia, a Southern state, had the largest increase, from 41 percent in 1990 to 67 percent in 2000.