“Each year since 1997, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics (Forum) has published America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, a report that includes detailed information on the well-being of children and families. The Forum updates all data annually on its website (http://childstats.gov), and alternates publishing the more detailed report with a condensed version that highlights selected indicators. Thus, this July, the Forum is publishing the Brief and will return to publishing the more detailed report in July 2007. The indicators and background measures presented in this Brief have all been reported previously by the Forum. One indicator – Parental Reports of Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties – was first presented as a Special Feature in the 2005 report and has now become an annual indicator. The background measures and 26 key indicators were chosen because they are easy to understand; are based on substantial research connecting them to child wellbeing; 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, Population and Family Characteristics, describes the context in which children live (including aspects such as changes in children’s family settings and living arrangements). The sections that follow highlight indicators of child well-being in four key areas: Economic Security, Health, Behavior and Social Environment, and Education. The data in this year’s report show that adolescent birth rates continued to decline to the lowest ever recorded, immunization rates were at record highs, more young children were being read to daily by a family member, average mathematics scores of 4th- and 8th-graders reached an all-time high, and teen smoking was at the lowest rate since data collection began. However, the proportion of births to unmarried women continued to rise, the rate of infants born with low or very low birthweight continued to increase, the trend of overweight children also rose, and the percentage of children living in families with incomes below their poverty thresholds remained at 17 percent. The Brief also provides a summary list highlighting changes between the two most recent data collections for each background measure and indicator.” – Publisher’s description
