Finding Youth Statistics

Finding Youth Statistics

General Information

• The Annie E. Casey Foundation

This first website is a compilation for all the census 2000 data which relates to child wellbeing, such as the percentage of children who live below the poverty level, the percentage who are high school dropouts, and the percentage who live in single-parent homes. It’s fantastic and much easier to use than the census web page, plus you get all the best census information on children all in one table. We highly recommend you check this out.

Here are some instructions to help you navigate the page:

Once you get on the page, click on the word "Profiles" at the top of the page. (If you click on "Rankings" you can also generate some very interesting and perhaps useful information, we will not talk about it here but try it on your own at some point.) Now read the directions at the top of this page. You will find that you can generate a profile of information for different geographical regions, your state, your county, your city, etc. The directions will tell you that if you want to look at data for the whole state you should click the state name, but if you want data for only your city, you will need to click the box with the plus (+) sign which appears next to your state. Select whichever region you are interested in and the tables of data should appear automatically.

• www.aecf.org/cgi-bin/cliks.cgi

This second site from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is much like the first, although it offers different information about children. On this site you will find data about teen births, teen deaths, juvenile crime, child abuse and neglect, etc. Note, however, that data is not available for all areas. But again it is a wonderful site and it is worth checking to see if there is information available for your state, county, or city.

Like the site above, click on the "Profiles" and the top of the webpage and then follow the directions for choosing a geographical region. (Click on the state name for the whole state, or on the box with the plus sign if you want a county or city within that state.)

• The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

This website offers a lot of both national and state data. Although a lot of the data is about teen pregnancy and births, you can also find information about children who live in poverty, children whose parents are unemployed, children who don’t have insurance, etc.

Once on this site, click on "Demographic Data" in the orange box on the left side of the page. A list of topics will appear in a lighter orange color. Pick which you would like to view and click on it, then scroll down the page to view the data for your state.

High School Dropout Rates

• National Center for Education Statistics

This website provides info on the event dropout rates for each state during the 93-94 through 98-99 school years.

• The Annie E. Casey Foundation

For quick to find census data of dropout rates in your state, county and other local regions go to http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/census/ and click on "profiles" and then follow the instructions.

• The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

This site has state data on idle youth and school dropouts. Click on "demographic data".

• For more up-to-date info try looking up your local school district’s website or your state school board association’s website. They may have dropout rates posted, but at the very least they should have contact information so that you can call and ask to see if they have records of dropout rates.

Substance Abuse

• US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Applied Studies

This site has state data on tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use for 1999 and 2000. For youth substance abuse statistics, a good place to start would be to click on "Volume I" and then look at Table A.1 in the appendix.

• US Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

This site has a state-by-state listing of the number of juvenile arrest rates in 1999 in the categories of drug abuse and alcohol violation.

• FBI Uniform Crime Reports

This site, although hosted by the University of Virginia, links to county information from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. You can find the number of juvenile arrests in various drug and alcohol categories for your county in 2000 and many preceding years. Scroll down to the table and then click on Juvenile Arrests and then follow the directions to select the information you are interested in viewing. You can compare data from several counties from the same state or different states at the same time if you wish. To select two or more states/counties from the list: after you have made the first selection, hold down the ctrl key before clicking on any additional selections.

Teen Pregnancy and Births

• The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

This site has state data on teen pregnancy in 1996 and teen birth data for 2000 as well as a great deal of other information. Click on the grey box which says "state profile" then choose a state. Browse the data by clicking on the categories on the left side of the screen. To compare statistics for several states at the same time click the grey box entitled "state by state comparison" and then browse the categories.

• National Vital Statistics Reports

This report has several detailed tables which include information on teen births by state. Click on "detailed tables" to find links and descriptions of all the tables.

• The Annie E. Casey Foundation

This site provides a wide range of child well-being data (which sometime includes teen birth rates) for states, counties, and some cities. Click on "Profiles" and then follow the directions to choose the region in which you are interested.

• For more updated data try checking out your state’s Department of Health website; they may have state and county data on teen pregnancy or teen births.