The Child Vulnerability index was created using the following statistical measures (Click each one to see the rankings for each state and the source of the data for ranking):

• Number of Deaths per 1,000 Live Births
• Deaths per 100,000 Children 1-14
• Deaths per 100,000 Teens 15-19
• Births to Teen Mothers (15-19) per 1,000 Teen Girls
• % of Births to Women Receiving Late or No Prenatal Care
• Child Poverty (%)
• % of Children Uninsured
• Juvenile Incarceration Rate per 100,000
• Child Abuse Fatalities per 100,000 Children
• Per Capita Child Welfare Spending

For each of these measures, a mean was calculated based on that measure for each state. To standardize the results from each of these categories which measure different things in different ways, we calculated the standard deviation away from the mean for each measure. Then, to make sure we account for statistical outliers for any one measure, the categories farthest away from the mean on the positive and negative side were dropped. The final rankings are based on the average of standard deviations away from the mean rankings for states.

Click here for the calculations of the rankings.