What does a child need to thrive? Most people know that children need shelter, food and love to be happy and healthy, but there’s more to consider. Child wellbeing can be affected by the child’s own personality and those around them, like their family and community. But larger systemic trends in a child’s home state also have a direct impact on their wellbeing.

The 2025 KIDS COUNT® DATA BOOK from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is an annual study of children across the United States, measuring state-specific factors at play in determining overall wellbeing. The data offers key insights into the overall health and wellness of children. The report analyzes how certain factors affect children differently depending on where they live. 

This 2025 edition paints a complex picture: steady progress in some areas, setbacks in others and persistent opportunities to do better for kids and their families. Bright spots include a reduction in child poverty and an increase in health insurance coverage. The wellbeing of children is shaped by their communities, and we also see hopeful trends in the Family and Community indicators. Teen birth rates declined further, and more children lived in families with the head of household having at least a high school diploma and in communities with less concentrated poverty. However, we are also seeing education-based indicators falling behind. 

Armed with this information, organizations like KVC, as well as parents and caregivers, can understand the different challenges families and children may be facing. Legislators can make informed decisions about policy. And individuals can also use this data to take action, donate, volunteer or get more involved in improving the lives of children and teens in their community.

What Contributes to a Child’s Wellbeing?

2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book

The KIDS COUNT Data Book looks specifically at four domains to measure overall child wellbeing: economic, education, health and family/community factors. Looking at these four categories provides a closer look at child wellbeing, highlighting bright spots in states as well as areas with room for improvement. 

The study looks at four “key indicators” within each category, showing how measurements contribute to the overall picture of how a state is doing.

Here are the 16 key indicators of child wellbeing:

• Economic factors
  • Children in poverty
  • Children whose parents lack secure employment 
  • Children living in households with a high housing cost burden
  • Teens not in school and not working 
• Education factors 
  • Young children not in school (ages 3 & 4)
  • Fourth graders not proficient in reading
  • Eighth graders not proficient in math
  • High school students not graduating on time
• Health factors 
  • Low birth-weight babies
  • Children without health insurance
  • Child and teen deaths per 10,000
  • Children and teens who are overweight or obese (ages 10–17)
• Family and Community factors 
  • Children in single-parent families 
  • Children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma 
  • Children living in high-poverty areas
  • Teen births per 1,000

Progress in Family and Community Indicators 

In 2023, only 5% of children were without health insurance, down from 6% in 2019. This is an encouraging milestone made possible through coordinated, effective policy. We see improvement in other areas as well:

• 11% Children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma (a 1% improvement from pre-pandemic years)
• 8% Children living in high-poverty areas (a 2% improvement from pre-pandemic years)
• 13 Teen births per 1,000 (a 4-point improvement from pre-pandemic years)

New Findings on Wellbeing and Learning Loss

While ten of the key indicators stayed the same or improved compared to previous years, the other six worsened — including four factors related to education and two regarding child and teen death rates.

According to data from the 2023 school year, the following indicators have experienced setbacks:

• 54% of young children (ages 3 and 4) are not in school (a 2% increase from pre-pandemic years)
• 70% of fourth graders are not proficient in reading (a 4% increase from pre-pandemic years)
• 73% of eighth graders are not proficient in math (a 6% increase from pre-pandemic years)
• 7% of teens are not in school and not working (a 1% increase from pre-pandemic years)

While these averages account for children of all races and economic backgrounds, the numbers are significantly worse for students of color, children of immigrant families and children in low-income families or school districts.

Root Causes and Educational Outcomes

We’ve seen the greatest setbacks in education, three of its four indicators worsening since 2019. Since the pandemic, preschool participation has not rebounded. Both reading and math proficiency have declined. This could be a result of a rise in chronic absenteeism. But there are some hopeful indicators; high school graduation rates have continued to rise! This is likely because of families’ resilience following the pandemic.

“We know what children need to thrive — essentials such as food, housing, mental and physical health care; adequate household income; quality education and work opportunities as they age; permanent relationships with caring adults; and safe, stable environments at home and in their communities. While many children in America are doing well, it is evident from these data that large swaths of the population are not. Leaders have an opportunity now to make kids a priority, apply what we know works and secure a strong future for children and our nation.”

-Lisa Hamilton, President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation

To Improve Learning, One Key Factor Stands Out

Parental involvement is shown to lead to bet­ter grades, high­er test scores, high­er grad­u­a­tion rates, and stronger enroll­ment rates in post­sec­ondary education. It can also pos­i­tive­ly influ­ence children’s behavior and ultimately set children up for long-term success.

• Par­ents can be involved in their child’s edu­ca­tion in a num­ber of ways, includ­ing par­tic­i­pat­ing in activ­i­ties like vol­un­teer­ing at school, com­mu­ni­cat­ing with teach­ers and sup­port­ing aca­d­e­m­ic-related activ­i­ties at home.
• The Annie E. Casey Foundation recommends educators take up a school-wide approach to building partnerships and encouraging parental involvement. Giving parents a voice in their child’s schooling helps improve involvement.
• Communities and local businesses can support parental engagement by offering flexibility to parents.

How Does Your State Rank?

The 2025 Data Book shows improvement nationally on 7 of the 16 factors compared to 2019 or other pre-pandemic years. The top ten states for overall child wellbeing are New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Utah, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Jersey, Connecticut, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Colorado. 

Regionally, the Northeast and the Midwest have the most states with high rankings in wellbeing, with Southern states continuing to have the lowest rankings.

View the full list of state rankings here.

How is KVC Working to Improve Children’s Overall Wellbeing?

KVC Health Systems has a long history of strengthening families, developing parenting skills and equipping families to prevent the need for foster care. For nearly 200 years, we’ve provided heart-centered service to children and families in need, becoming a national leader in mental health and child welfare.

Often, factors like poor economic resources or lack of access to healthcare lead families to struggle. But we know that any type of disruption can greatly impact a child. One of our services across our entire network is in-home family support, which aims to ensure that families have the skills needed to safely care for their children, help parents find jobs where they can earn a suitable wage, and work with them to access healthcare. Success out in the world starts with stability at home. 

In addition to resources aiding children and youth in foster care and reunification, KVC offers mental health services at many of our locations, including Camber Mental Health facilities in Kansas. Additionally, the new Children’s Mercy + Camber Mental Health campus in Olathe is open and providing life-saving services. Academic support resources are provided at some KVC locations as well, including KVC Academy in Missouri, the Fostering Educational Success program in Nebraska and the new Middle College program in partnership with Fairmont State University.

Thanks to our team and supporters, KVC positively impacts 75,000 people’s lives every year through in-home family strengthening services, foster care, adoption, mental health treatment and inpatient children’s psychiatric treatment. Learn more about how we’re working to help children and teens in Kansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Nebraska here.