Every two minutes, a child or youth enters foster care.
391,098
young people in foster care
Represents # on any given day. Just over of 606,000 young people will experience foster care throughout a year (with children and youth coming into and going from the system).
There has been a big effort to reduce the number of children who uneccessarily enter foster care. Instead, the approach has been to fix problems (such as those related to poverty) that might exist in their family.
Reason for Entering Foster Care
8 yrs old
Average age
Gender
compared to 7.2% in general population
Race of Young People in Foster Care
How young people leave foster care
Runaway and death of child = less than 1%
21.7
Average number of months spent in foster care
113,589
Children and youth awaiting awaiting adoption
19,130
Young adults who age out of foster care each year
Sources of Data
The above information was sourced from the following sources, where you can take an even deeper dive into the data.
Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) FY 2021 data
National Youth in Transition Database