U.S. CENSUS ASKS ABOUT ADOPTED CHILDREN

The first-ever census profile of America's adopted children shows that 2.5% of children under 18 -- 1.6 million -- were adopted.

On Aug. 22, 2003 the United States Census Bureau released its first report on adoption, "Adopted Children and Stepchildren: 2000". In the 2000 census the Bureau had asked about adopted children and stepchildren for the first time. The purpose was to improve the statistics it keeps on families and provide data of value to policymakers and agencies.

The question about relationship with the head of the household included the options "natural born son/daughter", "adopted son/daughter" and "stepson/stepdaughter." The 1990 census didn't separate "natural-born" and "adopted."  

The report, "Adopted Children and Stepchildren: 2000", is a PDF file at www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-6.pdf. For more information, see the Aug. 22, 2003 news release at www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03-130.html.

The adoption question was in the long form of the census questionnaire. The data in the report are extrapolated from the responses by the people who got the long form -- about one in six households.

The term "adoption" covered various forms of adoption, such as: adoption of biologically related and unrelated children, adoption of stepchildren, adoption through private and public agencies, domestic and international adoptions, and independent and informal adoptions. Regarding relative adoptions, an estimate for 1992 was that about 42% of all adoptions were by stepparents or a relative (Victor Flango and Carol Flango. “How

Many Children Were Adopted in 1992,” Child Welfare, 1995, Vol. LXXIV, No. 5, Sept.-Oct.)

THE OVERALL NUMBERS

Here is the measure of adoption in the United States in 2000:

• The U.S. has 2.1 million adopted children and 4.4 million stepchildren.
• There are 65 million children under 18. Of that age group, 1.586 million (2.5%) were adopted, and 3.292 million (5.1%) are stepchildren. 92.5% are children living with birth parents.
• 87% of adoptees under 18 were born in the U.S.
• Among the 1.7 million households with adopted children, 82% had one adopted child, 15% had two, and 3% had three or more.

REACTION

On Aug. 22, 2003 ACC's Elspeth Ross emailed the adoption community, calling for better data collection in Canada. The head of ACC's Communications Committee wrote, "We need Canadian adoption statistics. We can't give this same information for Canada. We should lobby Statistics Canada to have a question on relationships, including adoption, in the 2006 Census."

An Aug. 22 article in USA Today declared, "The landmark profile will become the principal source of statistics on adoptive families. It also will change the nation's image of what U.S. families look like and how they are formed, says Adam Pertman of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a think tank on adoption issues. 'We are adopting children who are not the same ethnicity, race or color as their parents,' he says."

USA Today also cited the president of the National Council For Adoption, an advocacy group in Alexandria VA: About 126,000 children are in the foster-care system eligible for adoption, says Thomas Atwood. Their average age is about 8, he says. The fact that Census is now asking about adoptions is almost as significant as the findings. "Clearly adoption is alive and well in America today," Atwood says. "No adopted child should feel alone."

For the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse's commentary on U.S. national adoption data, see naic.acf.hhs.gov/stats/index.cfm.

Following are more detailed findings from the 2000 census:

NUMBER OF CHILDREN OF HOUSEHOLDER BY TYPE OF RELATIONSHIP AND AGE: 2000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation

GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION

•  The proportion of children under 18 who were adopted showed little variation by region. The percentage in the Midwest (2.6%) was slightly higher than in the other three regions (2.4% each).
• By state, the percentage of adopted children under 18 ranged from a low of about 2.0% in Delaware, California, Texas and Louisiana, to a high of 3.9% in Alaska.

THE CHILDREN

• Girls were adopted more often than boys, 835,000 to 750,000. The report said one reason is that more single women adopt girls than boys.
•  About one in six adopted children (17%) under 18 are of a different race than the head of the household.
• 76% of householders with an adopted child list the child's race as white; 15% list African-American. Asians, other races and people who listed two or more races make up the difference. 9% are Hispanic, who can be of any race.
• Some 12% of adopted children under 18 have a disability, compared to 5% of biological children.  Parents most often reported a "mental disability" such as difficulty learning, remembering, or concentrating. The report states, "Parents who reported this difficulty for their children were likely reporting conditions such as learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, as well as other conditions. This category may also include children who suffer the effects of maternal drug abuse, fetal alcohol syndrome, or any medical condition that affects the child’s mental capabilities."

FAMILY SITUATION

• Adoptive parents tend to be older, have higher incomes and have more formal education than other parents. A greater percentage of adoptive parents are married, compared with biological parents.
• Adopted kids tend to live with older parents. The average age of the parent of an adopted child is 43, compared with 38 for the biological parent of a child. (Adopted parents who have trouble conceiving a child often wait until later in life before turning to adoption.)
• Adopted kids tend to live with more economically secure parents.  Adopted children under 18 lived in households with a median income of US$56,000 a year versus $48,000 a year for biological children. 78% of adopted children lived in homes that were owned by their parents versus 67% of biological children.
• Only 12% of adopted children live in poverty compared with 16% of biological children.

INTERNATIONAL ADOPTEES

• 200,000 (12.5%) of the country's 1.6 million adopted children under 18 were born outside the U.S. In comparison, roughly 2.3 million (3.8%) of the 59.8 million children living with a biological parent were born abroad.
• More and more foreign-born children are being adopted. The number of immigrant visas issued to orphans coming to the U.S. for adoption increased from about 7,000 in 1990 to nearly 18,000 in 2000. For annual totals, see the U.S. State Department at www.travel.state.gov/orphan_numbers.html.
• About half of internationally adopted children were born in Asia, one-third in Latin America, and one-sixth in Europe.
• More than one-fifth of all foreign-born adopted children came from South Korea (47,555), followed by China (21,053), Russia (19,631), Mexico (18,021) and India (7,793).

Source: Adoption Council of Canada, www.adoption.ca

Copyright 2003 Adoption Council of Canada. Reproduction permitted, if credited "Source: Adoption Council of Canada, www.adoption.ca".

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