America's children : key national indicators of well-being, 2003

America\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2003 is the seventh report in an annual series prepared by the Forum agencies. As in past years, readers will find here an accessible compendium of indicators\ue2\u20ac\u201ddrawn from the most reliable official statistics\ue2\u20ac\u201dillustrative of both the promises and the difficulties confronting our Nation\ue2\u20ac\u2122s young people. The report presents 25 key indicators on important aspects of children\ue2\u20ac\u2122s lives. These indicators are easy to understand by broad audiences, objectively based on substantial research connecting them to reliable data on child well-being, balanced so that no single area of children\ue2\u20ac\u2122s lives dominates the report, measured regularly so that they can be updated to show trends over time, and representative of large segments of the population rather than one particular group. The report also presents data on nine contextual measures that describe changes in the characteristics of the population as well as in children\ue2\u20ac\u2122s family settings and living arrangements.Recommended citation: Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. America\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2003. Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office