2007 KIDS COUNT Data Book Online >
Summary and Findings
Variations in Child Well-Being by Race and Ethnicity
Child well-being varies by state and across racial and ethnic groups. Table 1 provides national statistics for five large racial and ethnic groups on each of the 10 measures of child well-being used to rank states. Similar tables for earlier years are available on the KIDS COUNT website. Over the next year, we will be working to include state-level data for these racial and ethnic groups for our 10 key indicators on the KIDS COUNT State-Level Data Online system at www.aecf.org/kidscount.
Nationally, the differences in child wellbeing across racial and ethnic groups are large and vary by indicator. However, on the whole, non-Hispanic white children continue to have better outcomes compared with other racial and ethnic groups. The size of the gap between black and non-Hispanic white children varies by indicator, but the outcomes for black children are worse on every one of the 10 indicators. The same is true for American Indian and Alaskan Native children when compared to non-Hispanic white children.
Comparing outcomes for Hispanic children with those for non-Hispanic white children poses a bit of a paradox. While Hispanic families typically have lower socioeconomic status characteristics, many birth and death outcomes are actually the same or better for Hispanics than for non-Hispanic whites. The percent of Hispanic children being of low birthweight (6.8 percent) is less than that of non-Hispanic white children (7.2 percent), and the Infant Mortality Rate for Hispanics is nearly identical to that for non- Hispanic whites. The Child Death Rate and the Teen Death Rate are very similar for Hispanic and non-Hispanic white children. On the other measures of child well-being, however, Hispanic children trail non-Hispanic white children.
On seven measures of child well-being, Asian and Pacific Islander children have better outcomes than non-Hispanic white children. The high school dropout rate for Asian and Pacific Islander children is only half that of non-Hispanic white children. Asian and Pacific Islander children trail non-Hispanic white children in terms of the rate of low-birthweight babies, parental employment, and child poverty.