2007 KIDS COUNT Data Book Online >
Summary and Findings
KIDS COUNT State Indicators
In the pages that follow, the most recent figures are compared with corresponding data from 2000 to assess the trends over time in each state. To provide a fuller picture of children’s lives and a framework for better understanding the 10 key indicators of child well-being used to rank states, several background measures are provided for each state, including measures that reflect children in the foster care system.
The 10 key indicators of child well-being used here are all derived from federal government statistical agencies and reflect the best available state-level data for tracking yearly changes in each indicator. However, it is important to recognize many of the indicators used here are derived from samples, and like all sample data, they contain some random error. Other measures (the Infant Mortality Rate and the Child Death Rate, for example) are based on relatively small numbers of events in some states and may exhibit some random fluctuation from year to year. Therefore, we urge readers to focus on relatively large differences—both across states and over time within a state. Small differences, within a state over time or between states, may simply reflect random fluctuations, rather than real changes in the well-being of children. Assessing trends by looking at changes over a longer period of time is more reliable. Yearly data since 2000 for each state are presented in Appendix 1.
We include data for the District of Columbia in the Data Book, but we do not include the District in our state rankings because it is so different from any state that the comparisons are not meaningful. It is more useful to look at changes within the District of Columbia since 2000, or to compare the District with other large cities, as we do in other KIDS COUNT publications. For the first time, the KIDS COUNT Data Book also includes data for Puerto Rico. Information for the U.S. Virgin Islands was not available in time to be included in this year’s publication, but limited information is available on the KIDS COUNT website.