Locations
United States
Rate of children entering foster care by age group in United States
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Definition and Source
PROVIDER
Definition
Rates are based on Census Bureau estimates of the population of children and youth ages 0 to 20 in each state, as of July 1st of the respective year. National estimates do not include Puerto Rico.
Missing age data are excluded from rate and frequency distributions. Children and youth are categorized as entering foster care if they had a valid date for entry into care during a particular fiscal year.
Data Source
Population data: U.S. Census Bureau. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population by Single Year of Age and Sex for the United States, States, and Puerto Rico Commonwealth.
Starting with data from FY2022, files released by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) are now referred to as “AB” files as opposed to annual files. The new AB file format produces slightly different estimates than the old annual file format (used for and prior to FY2021), which limits comparability across years. Furthermore, the data presented here will not match the ACF Dashboards because the Dashboards use files that are different than the AB files.
Notes
Last Updated
August 2025