General Adoption Statistics
- There are millions of orphans in the world just waiting for a family.
- There are more than 118,000 children in public foster care awaiting adoption (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005).
- There are thousands of families looking to adopt each year.
- 6 in 10 Americans have had personal experience with adoption. This means that they, themselves, a family member or a close friend has been adopted, has adopted a child or has placed a child for adoption. (Evan B. Donaldson Institute, 1997)
- It is estimated that about 1 million children in the United States live with adoptive parents. (Stolley, 1993)
- Birthmothers who have on-going contact with their children’s adoptive families report having less grief, regret, guilt and sadness than do those who do not have contact. (Henney, Ayers-Lopex, McRoy & Crotevant, 2007)
- Adoptive parents who had contact with their children’s birth relatives were more satisfied with their contact arrangements than were those who had no contact. (Henney, Ayers-Lopex, McRoy & Crotevant, 2007)
As reported in the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute March 2012 Openness in Adoption: The benefits of openness for all parties involved have been well established in research, particularly as they relate to adopted children. (Berge, et. al., 2006; Grotevant, el.al., 2009)
Adoption statistics for
Adopted children do as well as or better than their non-adopted counterparts, according to a 1994 study by the Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based public policy research organization providing leadership, knowledge and resources to promote healthy children, youth and communities. This study, the largest examination of adopted adolescents yet undertaken, concludes:
- Teens who were adopted at birth are more likely to live with two parents in a middle-class family than children born into intact families.
- Adopted children score higher than their middle-class counterparts on indicators of school performance, social competency, optimism and volunteerism.
- Adopted adolescents generally are less depressed than children of single parents and less involved in alcohol abuse, vandalism, group fighting, police trouble, weapon use and theft.
- Adopted adolescents score higher than children of single parents on self-esteem, confidence in their own judgment, self-directedness, positive view of others and feelings of security within their families.
- On health measures, adopted children and children of intact families share similarly high scores, and both those groups score significantly higher than children raised by single parents.
- Seven percent of children adopted in infancy repeated a grade, while 12 percent of children living with both biological parents repeated a grade.
- Compared with the general child population, children placed with adoptive couples are better off economically.
Data indicates that adopted children:
- Have a strong feeling of security with their family.
- Enjoy a quality of home environment superior to all the other groups.
- Have superior access to health care and education opportunties compared to all other groups.
- Do better in educational attainment and attend college in greater percentages than the general population.
- They experience lower rates of crime and drug abuse.
- Have a healthy sense of self-esteem, optimism and social competency.
Since the following information changes annually and in order to ensure you receive the most accurate statistical information from Adoption & Beyond, the following information is available upon request.
- The number of children eligible for adoption and awaiting an adoptive placement referral via Adoption & Beyond, Inc.
- Statistics for the past three calendar years regarding:
- The number of prospective adoptive parents who apply for services each year
- The number of adoptive placements Adoption & Beyond, Inc. has made
- The percentage of those placements that have disrupted or dissolved