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National Adoption Statistics
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A Child's Waiting adoption agency provides national adoption statistics on children waiting to be adopted nationwide. |
- Of the 532,454 children in foster care
in 2002, approximately 129,262 were free
for adoption.
- Of the children waiting to be adopted
from foster care as of September 2001,
45% were black non-Hispanic, 34% were
white non-Hispanic, 12% were Hispanic,
and 4% were of undetermined ethnicity.
- In 2001, the median age of children
waiting to be adopted was 8.3 years.
Three percent of the children waiting
to be adopted were younger than 1 year,
32% were 1-5, 32% were 6-10, 28% were
11-15, and 2% were 16-18.
- The number of children adopted from
foster care has increased in recent years:
28,000 in 1996, 31,000 in 1997, 37,000
in 1998, 46,000 in 1999, 51,000 in 2000,
50,000 in 2001 and 52,000 in 2002.
- Of the children adopted from foster
care in 2001, 59% were younger than age
1, 17% were 1-5, 34% were 6-10, 16% were
11-15, and 2% were 16-18.
- Of the children adopted from foster
care in 2001, 59% were adopted by their
foster parents, 17% were adopted by a
nonrelative, and 23% were adopted by
a relative.
- Of the children adopted from foster
care in 2001, 51% waited more than one
year from the time they became legally
free for adoption until they were adopted.
- The stakes for children in need of
adoptive families is very high. In a
study of children who had “aged
out” of foster care, researchers
found that within 12 to 18 months of
turning 18 and leaving foster care, 27%
of males and 10% of females were incarcerated,
50% were unemployed, 37% had not finished
high school, 33% received public assistance,
and 19% of females had given birth to
children.
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