America's children in brief : key national indicators of well-being, 2016

Each year since 1997, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has published a report on the well-being of children and families. The Forum fosters coordination and collaboration among 23 federal agencies that produce or use statistical data on children and families, and seeks to improve federal data on children and families. The America\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Children series provides accessible compendiums of indicators drawn across topics from the most reliable official statistics; it is designed to complement other more specialized, technical, or comprehensive reports produced by various Forum agencies. The America\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Children series makes Federal data on children and families available in a nontechnical, easy-to-use format in order to stimulate discussion among data providers, policymakers, and the public.Pending data availability, the Forum updates all 41 indicators annually on its website (http://childstats. gov) and alternates publishing a detailed report, America\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, with a summary version, America\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Children in Brief, which highlights selected indicators. The data in this report come from a variety of sources\ue2\u20ac\u201dfeaturing both sample and universe surveys\ue2\u20ac\u201doften with different underlying populations, as appropriate for the topic. Indicators are chosen because they are easy to understand, are based on substantial research connecting them to child well-being, cut across important areas of children\ue2\u20ac\u2122s lives, are measured regularly so that they can be updated and show trends over time, and represent large segments of the population rather than one particular group. These indicators span seven domains: Family and Social Environment, Economic Circumstances, Health Care, Physical Environment and Safety, Behavior, Education, and Health. To provide a more in-depth perspective across report domains, this year\ue2\u20ac\u2122s America\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Children in Brief highlights selected indicators by race and ethnicity.This report reveals that the adolescent birth rate declined across all race and Hispanic origin groups and the rate of immediate college enrollment increased among White, non-Hispanic; Black, non-Hispanic; and Hispanic high school completers. Poverty rates and percentages of children living in food-insecure homes remain higher for Black, non-Hispanic and Hispanic children than for their White, non-Hispanic counterparts. New this year is a supplemental poverty measure for White, non-Hispanic; Black, non- Hispanic; Hispanic; and Asian, non-Hispanic children. The Brief concludes with its usual At a Glance summary table displaying the most recent data for all 41 indicators.This report was printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office in cooperation with the National Center for Health Statistics, July 2016.Recommended citation: Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. America\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2016. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.ac_16.pd