The 2020 KIDS COUNT Data Book was released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, an annually published resource that tracks child well-being nationally and state by state and ranks the states accordingly. The report is based on the latest available data for 16 key indicators and also identifies multi-year trends-comparing statistics from 2010 to 2018. Policymakers, researchers, and advocates can continue to use this information to help shape their work and build a stronger future for children, families, and communities.

For the 2020 report, those data are 2018, so they do not reflect current conditions amidst the COVID-19 crisis. The Casey Foundation plans to explore the effects of the pandemic on child well-being in a future report but is releasing the annual Data Book as usual to ensure legislators and other policymakers, researchers and advocates for children have the information they are customarily able to access at this time of year.

Overall Virginia ranked 14th in the Nation. The 2020 Data Book shows improvement in Virginia on eight indicators in the KIDS COUNT Index, including:

• Children that lack secure employment
• Children living in households with a high housing cost burden
• Teens not in school and not working
• 8th graders not proficient in math
• High school students not graduating on time
• Children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma
• Teen births
• Children without health insurance

Six indicators stayed the same:

• Children in poverty
• Young children (ages 3 and 4) not in school
• 4th graders not proficient in reading
• Children in single parent families
• Children living in high-poverty areas
• Low birth-weight babies

In two areas, indicators worsened:

• Child and teen deaths per 100,000
• Children and teens (ages 10 to 17) who are overweight or obese

 

Virginia Ranked 11th in Economic Well-Being and improved in 3 out of the 4 indicators since 2010.

Highlights include:

• There was a 2% decrease for children whose parents lack secure employment
• Virginia had an 8% decrease of children living in households with a high housing cost burden
• There was a 3% decrease in teens not in school and not working

 

 

Virginia Ranked 6th in Education and improved in 2 out of the 4 indicators and remained the same in the other 2 indicators.

Highlights include:

• A 2% increase in the number of eight-grade proficiency in math
• An 5% increase in the number of high school students graduating on time

 

Virginia Ranked 18th in Family and Community and improved in 2 out of the 4 indicators and remained the same in the other 2 indicators.

Highlights include:

• Virginia saw progress with a 2% decrease in the number of children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma
• The rate of teen births per 1,000 dropped from 27 to 14

 

Virginia Ranked 24th in Health. For this domain Virginia stayed the same for one, improved in one, and worsened for 2 of the 4 indicators.  This domain includes new data on childhood obesity that has not been included in previous years. Due to this change, rankings in this domain should not be compared to previous reports.

The Virginia KIDS COUNT data center includes these indicators and hundreds more at the state and even local level over time. For example, interested in learning more about the percent of Children in poverty across Virginia? The Virginia KIDS COUNT data center has data available by locality and race.

 

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