Introduction

Welcome to the inaugural issue of America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2004. Since 1997, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has published America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, a report that includes detailed information on a set of key indicators of child well-being. To make better use of its resources, the Forum has decided to update all data annually on this website, and to alternate publishing the more detailed report with a new condensed version—America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being—that highlights selected indicators. Thus, this July, the Forum is publishing the Brief; in July 2005 the Forum will publish the more detailed report, returning to the Brief in July 2006.

The indicators and background measures presented in this Brief are those that have been reported previously by the Forum. In the mid-1990s, careful consideration was given to selecting a small set of key indicators that describe children’s well-being. The 25 key indicators were chosen because they are easy to understand; are based on substantial research connecting them to child well-being; vary across important areas of children's lives; are measured regularly so that they can be updated and show trends over time; and represent large segments of the population, rather than one particular group.

The first section of America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2004 describes the context in which children live (such as changes in children’s family settings and living arrangements). The four sections that follow—economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education—highlight improvements in children’s well-being as well as areas where there has been less progress. This year’s report reveals that birth rates for adolescents have continued to decline, victimization rates for youths and violent crime offending rates by youths are down, and high school advanced coursetaking rates are at the highest levels of the past 20 years. However, the prevalence of overweight among U.S. children has increased sharply, and the percentage of children living in poverty rose slightly, while remaining below its recent peak. The Brief concludes with a summary list highlighting recent changes in all 25 key indicators. For information on longer-term trends, specific data tables can be accessed on the Forum’s website, http://childstats.gov.

About the Forum

The Forum fosters coordination and integration among 20 Federal agencies that produce or use statistical data on children and families. The America’s Children reports provide an accessible compendium of indicators drawn from the most reliable official statistics, and are designed to complement other more specialized, technical, or comprehensive reports produced by various Forum agencies.

For further information

The Forum's website, http://childstats.gov, provides the following information:

• Detailed data tables and figures that display additional data, including trend data, not discussed in this Brief.
   
• Data source descriptions that provide information about the sources and surveys used to generate the background measures and indicators as well as information on how to contact the agency responsible for collecting the data or administering the relevant survey.
   
• Previous America’s Children reports from 1997 through 2003.
   
• Links to Forum agencies, publications, and related reports that offer further information about child and family statistics as well as international comparative data.
   
• Information on the Forum that describes its overall structure and organization, other Forum reports, and news on current activities.
   

Agency Websites

Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics:
     http://childstats.gov

Department of Agriculture
     Food and Nutrition Service:
     http://www.fns.usda.gov

Department of Commerce
     U.S. Census Bureau:
     http://www.census.gov

Department of Defense
     Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
     (Personnel Support, Families and Education):
     http://mfrc.calib.com

Department of Education
     National Center for Education Statistics:
     http://nces.ed.gov

Department of Health and Human Services
     Administration for Children and Families:
     http://www.acf.dhhs.gov
     Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality:
     http://www.ahrq.gov
     Maternal and Child Health Bureau:
     http://www.mchb.hrsa.gov
     National Center for Health Statistics:
     http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
     National Institute of Child Health and Human Development:
     http://www.nichd.nih.gov
     National Institute on Drug Abuse:
     http://www.nida.nih.gov
     Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation:
     http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov

Department of Housing and Urban Development
     Office of Policy Development and Research:
     http://www.huduser.org

Department of Justice
     Bureau of Justice Statistics:
     http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
     National Institute of Justice:
     http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij
     Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention:
     http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org

Department of Labor
     Bureau of Labor Statistics:
     http://www.bls.gov 
     Women's Bureau:
     http://www.dol.gov/wb/welcome.html

Department of Transportation
     National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
     http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov

Environmental Protection Agency
     Office of Children's Health Protection:
     http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/homepage

National Science Foundation
     Division of Science Resources Statistics:
     http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs

Office of Management and Budget
     Statistical and Science Policy Office:
     http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/statpolicy.html