Clip art copyrighted by Bobbie Peachey,
http://webclipart.about.com
I thought it would be interesting to research many different statistics about American children. Here are some of the countless fascinating facts I discovered:
Health
Obesity
In a NHANES II survey of the Prevalence of Obesity in Children ages 2-19 years
- Ages 2 through 5 - In 1976-1980 study, 5% were obese. In 2003-2006 study, 12.4% were obese.
- Ages 6 through 11 - In 1976-1980 study, 6.5% were obese. In 2003-2006 study,17.0%were obese.
- Ages 12 through 19 – In 1976-1980 study, 5% were obese. In 2003-2006 study, 17.6% were obese.
Autism
Experts estimate that two to six children out of every 1,000 will have autism. Males are four times more likely to have autism than females.
We can estimate that up to 500,000 individuals younger than 21 have autism.
Source: http://autism.emedtv.com
Education
Gifted
The National Association for Gifted Children estimates there are around 3 million academically gifted children in grades K-12 in the U.S. That’s about 6% of the student population.
Source: http://www.nagc.org
Students who study music test better. Those who took courses in music performance and music appreciation scored higher in the SAT than those who did not participate in the arts. Music performance students scored 53 points higher on the verbal and 39 points higher on the math.
Source: http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com
Literacy
One child in four in the US grows up not knowing how to read.
85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate.
Source: http://www.begintoread.com
Attendance
The number of elementary school-age children (ages 5 through 13) declined by 381,000 while the number of their high school-age counterparts (ages 14 through 17) increased by 329,000 between 2003 and 2004.
Graduation
The last census shows that high school graduation rates for women (ages 25 years and older) continued to exceed those of men, 85.4 percent and 84.9 percent, respectively. But 28.9 percent of men had a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to 26.5 percent of women.
Utah, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire and Alaska continued to have the highest proportions of people 25 years and older with a high school diploma or higher (around 92 percent).
Smoking, Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Cigarettes
About 40% of adolescents ages 12–17 years have tried smoking cigarettes, including a few puffs, in their lifetime.
Overall, Mexican American adolescents (41%) and non-Hispanic white adolescents (41%) had a higher prevalence of ever having tried smoking cigarettes, compared with non-Hispanic black adolescents (34%)
Alcohol
Sixteen percent of adolescents aged 12–17 years had their first alcoholic drink before age 13. Among those adolescents who had an alcoholic drink, 37% did so before age 13
Eighteen percent of males and 14% of females aged 12–17 years reported drinking before age 13.
Overall, 21% percent of adolescents