2017 Missouri KIDS COUNT Data and County Rankings

This is the 4th year that the Family and Community Trust (FACT) has been the KIDS COUNT organization for Missouri. On April 6, Child Advocacy Day in Missouri, Missouri KIDS COUNT released the annual county rankings of child well-being. The county rankings this year are based on 6 indicators – poverty, food insecurity, preventable hospitalizations, child asthma ER visits, births to teens and graduation rates.

Trends and notable findings:

  • Poverty generally is declining, but poverty density is increasing. More children are living in high poverty areas in Missouri, more children are homeless, and more children are uninsured.
  • Births to teens, graduation rates and teen unintentional injuries are improving.
  • Hospitalizations for children ages 1-19 have increased for both mental/behavioral and substance abuse diagnoses.
  • Race Disparities – teen birth rates for Black/African American teens was 1.5 times that of Whites; child asthma ER rates for Black/African American children is more than 8 times that for Whites; the preventable hospitalizations and low birth weight rates for Blacks/African Americans are more than twice as high as for Whites.

The new indicators and county ranks can be found at www.missourikidscountdata.org.

April 5, 2017