25 Key Facts about American Children:
- 1 in 2 will live in a single parent family at some point in childhood.
- 1 in 3 is born to unmarried parents.
- 1 in 3 will be poor at some point in their childhood.
- 1 in 3 is behind a year or more in school.
- 1 in 4 lives with only one parent.
- 2 in 5 never complete a single year of college.
- 1 in 5 was born poor.
- 1 in 5 is born to a mother who did not graduate from high school.
- 1 in 5 has a foreign-born mother.
- 3 in 5 preschoolers have their mother in the labor force.
- 1 in 6 is poor now.
- 1 in 6 is born to a mother who did not receive prenatal care in the first three months of pregnancy.
- 1 in 7 has no health insurance.
- 1 in 7 has a worker in their family but still is poor.
- 1 in 8 lives in a family receiving food stamps.
- 1 in 8 never graduates from high school.
- 1 in 8 is born to a teenage mother.
- 1 in 12 has a disability.
- 1 in 13 was born with low birth weight.
- 1 in 15 lives at less than half the poverty level.
- 1 in 24 lives with neither parent.
- 1 in 26 is born to a mother who received late or no prenatal care.
- 1 in 60 sees their parents divorce in any year.
- 1 in 139 will die before their first birthday.
- 1 in 1,056 will be killed by guns before age 20.
©2001 Children's Defense Fund.
Source: The State of America's Children Yearbook 2001.