Five prevalent issues that children face in the modern US

1. FIVE CHILDREN’S
ISSUES
By Kathryn Fairbanks

2. Poverty
■ 13.4 million-16.5 million children are living in poverty in the US
■ That’s 1 in 5 children
■ 47.6% of these children are living in a single parent household
■ Only 3 countries have a higher childhood poverty rate than the US and that’s Mexico,
Chile, andTurkey

3. Obesity
■ Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in
the past 30 years
■ In 2012, more than 30% of children and adolescents were overweight or obese
■ Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as
high cholesterol or high blood pressure

4. Behavioral Disorders
■ 6.4 million children in the US suffer from ADHD
■ That’s 11% of children ranging from 4-17 years of age
■ 1 in 68 US children have an autism spectrum disorder

5. Abuse
■ Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States
involving more than 6 million children
■ A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds
■ 28.3% of children have been reported victims of physical abuse
■ Between four and seven children die every day due to child abuse and neglect

6. Public Safety
■ Within the last year, of the 12,000 cases of missing children
84% were endangered runaways
12% were family abductions
2% were lost, injured, or otherwise missing children
1% were nonfamily abductions
1% were critically missing young adults
■ There were 466,949 missing child reports

7. References
■ http://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm
■ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/by-the-numbers-childhood-poverty-in-the-
u-s/
■ https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse-statistics/
■ http://www.missingkids.com/KeyFacts