We're Number...35

By Martin Merzer on 07/27/2010 @ 04:58 PM

A report released Tuesday shows that Florida remains deeply lodged in the back of the pack when it comes to children's health and development.

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's report, Florida ranks 35th in the nation when measured on 10 categories of child health and welfare. Worse, the finding is based on data collected between 2000 and 2008, before the recession really took hold.

On a national basis, the percent of children living in poverty rose, the percentage of low birth weight babies grew larger and more children found themselves living in single-parent families.

However, five areas did show improvement (at least until the recession hit): The infant mortality rate, child death rate, teen death rate, teen birth rate, and the percent of teens not in school or not high school graduates.

Getting back to Florida, the study found that:

• Florida has one of the nation’s highest shares of children in single-parent families. Florida tied for 43rd nationally – among the bottom 10 states – in the percentage of children in single-parent families. In 2008, 36 percent of the state’s kids lived in such families – the same share as in 2000.
• The rise in low birth weight babies might be stalling. The share of low birth weight babies in Florida remained at 8.7 percent between 2006 and 2007, which suggests that this measure’s steady rise since the 1990s could be stalling. The figure was 8 percent in the year 2000.
• Child poverty hovers around the national average. The percentage of children in Florida living in poverty has ranged between 17 percent and 19 percent since 2000. The state’s child poverty rate was 18 percent in 2008 – the same as the national rate. This represented slightly over 721,000 children in Florida. (A family of two adults and two children were considered poor if their income in 2008 fell below $21,834.)
• Child mortality continues to improve. Florida’s child death rate in 2007 was 21 deaths per 100,000 children, 13 percent lower than the rate in 2000 and 9 percent below the 2006 rate.

You can read or download the entire study and find related material here.