The Child Advocate

America's Children: 2001

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America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2001 is the fifth annual
report to the Nation on the condition of children in America. Eight contextual measures
describe the changing population and family context in which children are living, and
24 indicators depict the well-being of children in the areas of economic security, health,
behavior and social environment, and education. This year, the report has two special
features on asthma prevalence and youth employment.

The poverty rate for children dropped from 18 percent in 1998 to 16
percent in 1999, the lowest rate in more than 20 years. In families headed
by women, the poverty rate fell to 42 percent in 1999, down from 51
percent in 1980.
The number of children living in households where at least one parent had
a full-time job rose from 77 percent in 1998 to 79 percent in 1999. In
1994, 74 percent of children lived in a household with an employed parent.
In 1999, the birth rate for teenagers between 15 and 17 was 29 births per
1,000 teens, a record low for the second straight year. The rate has fallen
by about 25 percent since 1991, after rising by a similar amount between
1986 and 1991.
The percentage of children covered by health insurance rose from 85
percent in 1998 to 86 percent in 1999, the highest rate since 1995.
Fourteen percent of high school sophomores and 21 percent of seniors
reported smoking daily in 2000, down about four percentage points from
highs earlier in the decade. Among eighth graders, 7 percent were smokers,
compared to 10 percent in 1996.
The infant mortality rate remained at 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in
1998, the same rate found in 1997. The rate had declined dramatically in
the early and mid-1990s from 8.9 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990.
More than 5 percent of children under age 18 had asthma in 1998, up
from 4 percent in 1988 and 3 percent in 1981.

See America's Children: 2001 for the full report.

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