FIVE CHILDREN’S ISSUESBy Kathryn Fairbanks

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, and Turkey

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

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

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

Public Safety■ Within the last year, of the 12,000 cases of missing children

84% were endangered runaways12% were family abductions2% were lost, injured, or otherwise missing children1% were nonfamily abductions1% were critically missing young adults

■ There were 466,949 missing child reports

References

■ http://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm■ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/by-the-numbers-childhood-p

overty-in-the-u-s/

■ https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse-statistics/■ http://www.missingkids.com/KeyFacts