Change Indicator

Children ages 5 years and younger in Maine

  • Detailed
  • Sort / Rank
loading...

Why This Indicator Matters

The number of young children in Maine continues to decline, and this is particularly true in some of the most rural counties.  The number of children has an impact on schools, the labor force and the communities in Maine. 

What the data shows

The number of young children continues to decline. Overall, between 2012 and 2022 the number of children ages 0-5 declined from 81,258 to 75,463 or by 5,795 children or 7.7%. In these 10 years, eight counties have had declines over 10% in the number of children ages 0 - 5. These counties are Androscoggin, Franklin, Knox, Oxford, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Somerset and Waldo. Only Piscataquis has had an increase in the number of children ages birth through 5.

As of 2022, Cumberland had 22.8% of the children ages 5 & younger in Maine and York County had 15.4%. Penobscot had 10.7%, Androscoggin 9,6% and Kennebec 9.4% of the children 5 & under population respectively. Two thirds of Maine young children lived in one of these 5 counties.





show more

Definition and Source

PROVIDER

Definition

The number of children ages 5 years and younger living in Maine.

Data Source

Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Data, Research and Vital Statistics.

Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Data, Research and Vital Statistics provides a table with the number of children age 0, age 1, age 2, etc.
For this indicator, the numbers for each age from ages 0 to age 5 are added together, so this data is the estimate of children who are up to 5 years and 364 days.

Last Updated

September 2023