2008 KIDS COUNT Data Book Online >
Summary and Findings
The broad array of data we present each year in the KIDS COUNT Data Book is intended to illuminate the status of America’s children and to assess trends in their well-being. By updating the assessment every year, KIDS COUNT provides ongoing benchmarks that can be used to see how states have advanced or regressed over time. Readers can also use KIDS COUNT to compare the status of children in their state with those in other states across several dimensions of child well-being.
Although the 10 measures used in KIDS COUNT to rank states can hardly capture the full range of conditions shaping kids’ lives, we believe these indicators possess three important attributes: (1) They reflect a wide range of factors affecting the well-being of children, such as health, adequacy of income, and educational attainment. (2) They reflect experiences across a range of developmental stages—from birth through early adulthood. (3) They permit legitimate comparisons because they are consistent across states and over time. Research shows that the 10 KIDS COUNT key indicators capture most of the yearly variation in child well-being reflected in other indices that utilize a much larger number of indicators. For more information about the criteria used to select KIDS COUNT indicators, see page 190.
The 10 indicators used to rank states reflect a developmental perspective on childhood and underscore our goal to build a world where pregnant women and newborns thrive; infants and young children receive the support they need to enter school prepared to learn; children succeed in school; adolescents choose healthy behaviors; and young people experience a successful transition into adulthood. In all of these stages of development, young people need the economic and social assistance provided by a strong family and a supportive community.
As the KIDS COUNT Data Book has developed over time, some of the indicators used to rank states have changed because we replaced weaker measures with stronger ones. Consequently, comparing rankings in the 2008 Data Book to rankings in past Data Books does not always provide a perfect assessment of change over time. However, Appendix 2 shows how states would have ranked in past years if we had employed the same 10 measures used in the 2008 Data Book. The table in Appendix 2 is the best way to assess state changes over time in overall child well-being.