We all know the life chances of children are vastly improved when they are the top priority of supportive families and communities. Most American children live in such secure environments and sail into young adulthood physically and emotionally healthy, becoming productive members of society.
But while all states provide a basic network of social programs to assist vulnerable children and families, children do much better in some states than in others.
As the sorry numbers in this report show, a huge gap exists among states on a wide variety of child well-being indicators. The state they live in should not adversely influence the life and death of children—but it does. Such inequalities affect all Americans, rich and poor alike, and weaken both our economy and our democracy.
Rankings By Indicator displays where your state stands on important measures of child well-being, and Rankings by State displays where each of the states rank in terms of overall vulnerability and specific measures.
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