Gains, Setbacks for Nation’s Children

From the NIH findings are described in detail in America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007. Compared to national statistics for the previous year, there has been an increase in the percentage of children living with at least one working parent and the percentage of children living in households classified as food insecure has declined. High school students were more likely to have taken advanced academic courses and the percentage of young adults who completed high school has increased. The adolescent birth rate has dropped to a record low. Increasing were: the percentage of children served by community water systems that did not meet all applicable standards for healthy drinking water, and the percentage of children living in physically inadequate or crowded housing or housing that cost more than 30 percent of household income. The percentage of low birthweight infants also increased, as did the percentage of births to unmarried women. The rate at which youth were perpetrators of serious violent crime increased slightly.