Adoption Statistics

Adoption statistics reported in USA Today in 1997 stated:

"In Philadelphia, adoptions are up 72 percent. In New York City, they've grown 74 percent since 1994. Kansas increased its public adoptions 34 percent between 1994 and 1996. In Salt Lake County, Utah, public adoptions doubled during the same time frame. In Michigan they were up 18 percent, while Los Angeles County posted a 22 percent gain. In Cook County, IL, which includes Chicago, 18 percent more children were adopted in the last fiscal year than the year before."

Adoption statistics for mothers who place a child for adoption

Significantly, unwed mothers who choose adoption do better than mothers who choose to be single parents:

• They have higher educational aspirations, are more likely to finish school, and less likely to live in poverty and receive public assistance than mothers who keep their children.
• They delay marriage longer are more likely to marry eventually, and are less likely to divorce.
• They are more likely to be employed 12 months after the birth and less likely to repeat out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
• They are no more likely to suffer negative psychological consequences, such as depression, than are mothers who rear children as single parents.

Source: McLaughlin SD, Manninen DL, Winges LD, Do Adolescents Who Relinquish Their Children Fare Better or Worse Than Those Who Raise Them? Family Planning Perspectives, 20:1 (Jan. - Feb., 1988), pp. 25-32

Adoption statistics for adopted children

Adopted children do as well as or better than their non-adopted counterparts, according to a 1994 study by the Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based public policy research organization providing leadership, knowledge and resources to promote healthy children, youth and communities. This study, the largest examination of adopted adolescents yet undertaken, concludes:

• Teens who were adopted at birth are more likely than children born into intact families to live with two parents in a middle-class family.
• Adopted children score higher than their middle-class counterparts on indicators of school performance, social competency, optimism and volunteerism.
• Adopted adolescents generally are less depressed than children of single parents and less involved in alcohol abuse, vandalism, group fighting, police trouble, weapon use and theft.
• Adopted adolescents score higher than children of single parents on self-esteem, confidence in their own judgment, self-directedness, positive view of others and feelings of security within their families
.
• On health measures, adopted children and children of intact families share similarly high scores, and both those groups score significantly higher than children raised by single parents.
• Seven percent of children adopted in infancy repeated a grade, while 12 percent of children living with both biological parents repeated a grade.
• Compared with the general child population, children placed with adoptive couples are better off economically.

Data indicates that adopted children:

• Do better in educational attainment than single parent children and children raised by grandparents.
• Enjoy a quality of home environment superior to all the other groups.
• Have superior access to health care compared to all other groups.