Children Born in 2001: First Statistics

Very interesting, the changing face of America.

These stats are from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a nationally representative sample of the nearly 4 million children born in the United States in the year 2001 being conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. To quote: "During the first wave of the study, 10,688 parents provided information and 10,221 children were directly assessed."

Randomly (well, not true, selected by me!) stats include:

51 percent were boys and 49 percent were girls;

54 percent were White, non-Hispanic; 14 percent were Black, non-Hispanic; 26 percent were Hispanic; 3 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic; 1 percent were American Indian, non-Hispanic; and 4 percent were multiracial, non-Hispanic;

23 percent were living in families whose household income was below the poverty threshold;

Forty-five percent of children living below the poverty threshold lived in households with no father present, while 12 percent of children living at or above the poverty threshold lived in households without a father;

Black children (58 percent) were more likely than White children (10 percent), Hispanic children (20 percent), or Asian children (6 percent) to live in a household with no father present.

These kids will be in charge in America in 2040---or in jail. We can watch it happen, or we can try to intervene.

Isn't that the decision society faces, brought down to simplest level: who is the mote, who is the light?

mary