Statistics On Adoption and Orphans

Domestic Orphans:

· At the end of 2004, there were 517,000 children in foster care
· Of those, approximately 114,000 are currently available for adoption
· Average age of a child in foster care is 10 years old
· The number of adoptions per year for the last 20 years ranges between 118,000 and 127,000
· Each year, approximately 20,000 children age out of foster care.
· Of those: 54 percent earned a high school diploma,
--2 percent earned a bachelor’s degree or higher,
--51 percent were unemployed,
--30 percent had no health insurance,
--25 percent had been homeless,
--30 percent were receiving public assistance,
--60 percent of young women had children 2.5 to 4 years after leaving foster care.

International Orphans:

· Sub-Sahara Africa has the highest proportion of orphans
– 43.4 million !

· The proportion of orphaned children generally increases with age:
--12 percent are 0-5 years old,
equating to 17.5 million orphans
--33 percent are 6-11 years old,
equating to 47 million orphans
--55 percent 12-17 years old,
equating to 79 million orphans

· In Central and Eastern Europe, almost 1.5 million children live in public care
· By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS is expected to exceed 25 million
· 20 percent of households with children in southern Africa are caring for one or more orphans

Adoption:
· There are approximately 1.5 million adopted children in the US
· 39 percent of the US population said they had very or somewhat seriously considered adopting a child at one point in their lives
· No more than 2 percent actually have adopted
· 48 percent of those seriously considering adoption indicated they would first look to their house of worship for more information

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Jennifer Richardson
www.richardsonstudios.blogspot.com