U.S. child abuse and domestic orphan care statistics as of 2009

The following are the most recent statistics available to Ark of Hope for Children from a variety of national sources. Awareness towards the plight of domestic orphans, abused children and youth, foster care and child sex trafficking is of critical interest to Ark of Hope For Children. We cannot truly understand the depth of the problem without having a better understanding of the numbers of affected orphans.

* It is extremely important to note that a variety of economic events are affecting the numbers of orphans within U.S. foster care. Decreased budgets, an overwhelmed system, over worked social workers, and more coupled with severe financial difficulties which lead to greater stress have led to increased child abuse. Combined together these have caused great changes to the systems within the U.S. and throughout the world. Although numbers of children in foster care have been shown to be going down, it is due to fewer abused children being removed from the danger within their abusive homes. the trend has been towards only the most severe victims of abuse being moved to safety. This makes the numbers in care appear to decrease even though the incidents of abuse, homelessness and sex trafficking have greatly increased.

Children and youth in foster care *

• 424,000 children live in U.S. foster care *
• 255,000 entered foster care *
• 276,000 left foster care *
• 115,000 waiting to be adopted *
• Foster children often bounce between 4 to 6 homes per year
• 52% Male 48% Female
• 40% White/Caucasian 32% Black 19% Hispanic 9% Other
• 28 months = Average stay in foster care
• 8.1 yrs old = Average age of children in foster care
• 4.9 yrs old = Average age when removed from original home
• 24.9 average moths in care before termination of parental rights
• 14.5 additional months until children were adopted

Siblings in foster care

• 68% of foster children have 1 or more siblings (brother/sister)
• Only 30% of siblings are able to live together in foster care

3 years after “aging out” of foster care

• 20,000 youth annually "age out" of the system at 18 years old
• Estimated 60% or more of prison populations were abused and/or ex-foster children
• Up to 60% have experienced homelessness
• Estimated 70 to 75% end up in prostitution, on drugs or dealing drugs

Adoption from U.S. foster care

• 89% of children adopted from care received adoption subsidies
• 1/2 of all foster children become available for adoption
• 129,000 await adoption into "Forever Families"
• 72,000 awaiting adoption for 2 or more years
• 8.1 yrs old = average age of children awaiting adoption from foster care
• 6.6 yrs old = average age of children adopted from foster care

* The “rules” for removing children from abusive homes has changed to stem the influx of so many children and too few quality homes. While the positive goal is this move is to provide more in-home services to the family in an effort to keep children at home, the negative results are that the children entering the foster care system are the most severely abused and in need of intentional and knowledgeable intervention.

Child Abuse Statistics

• 1,343 children died from abuse in the U.S.
• 80.8% of abuse fatalities were from birth to 3 yrs old
• 80.9% of abuse was perpetrated by one or both birth parents
• 1 in 5 girls are sexually abused or assaulted before adulthood
• 1 in 10 boys are sexually abused or assaulted before adulthood
• < 35% of these cases are ever reported to authorities

** The rate and severity of abuse and neglect increases as the economies of the world worsen which will unfortunately be reflected in these numbers over the next five to ten years.

Child trafficking estimates

• 325,000 estimated U.S. victims of child sex trafficking ***
• Of the 450,000 yearly U.S. runaways 1 of 3 are forced into survival prostitution ***
• 10-15% of children living on the street have been sexually exploited***
• The average age of entry into prostitution is 12***
• 600 to 800,000 estimated worldwide victims of child trafficking every year ***
• 143 Million orphans worldwide

*** It is nearly impossible to estimate the number of children and youth that are victims of child trafficking for the purposes of sex, prostitution, child pornography and/or child labor.

Child Homelessness

• 1 in 50 children experience homelessness each year in America
• That's over 1.5 million children