2002 Kids Count Report
What Will It Take to Improve South Carolina's Rankings?
No one is willing to accept the rank of children in South Carolina as 45th in overall child well-being. In order to transform our concern into focused action, we should note that South Carolina can reach improved rankings by reducing the numbers and rates of problems for each of the indicators as follows:
| Indicator: | Current # & Rate of Children in SC*** | Required Reduction in # & Rate to Improve Ranking | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39th | 25th | 10th | 1st | ||||||||
| Rank | # | Rate | # | Rate | # | Rate | # | Rate | # | Rate | |
| Low Birthweight | 48 | 5,402 | 9.8 | 827 | 1.5 | 1,213 | 2.2 | 1,984 | 3.6 | 2,425 | 4.4 |
| Infant Mortality | 50 | 563 | 1.02 | 116 | 0.21 | 175 | 0.31 | 243 | 0.44 | 298 | 0.54 |
| Child Deaths (1-14)* | 42 | 223 | 30 | 15 | 2 | 45 | 6 | 74 | 10 | 126 | 17 |
| Teen Deaths (15-19)* | 36 | 192 | 68 | -0- | -0- | 42 | 15 | 71 | 25 | 127 | 45 |
| Births to Teens (15-17) | 42 | 3,062 | 3.8 | 242 | 0.3 | 950 | 0.9 | 1,531 | 1.9 | 2,176 | 2.7 |
| High School Dropouts (16-19) | 35 | 24,667 | 11 | -0- | -0- | 2,242 | 1 | 8,970 | 4 | 17,940 | 8 |
| Idle Teens (16-19) | 24 | 19,000 | 8 | -0- | -0- | -0- | -0- | 4,750 | 2 | 9,500 | 4 |
| Families without Steady Jobs** | 19 | 209,860 | 23 | -0- | -0- | -0- | -0- | 36,497 | 4 | 63,871 | 7 |
| Child Poverty** | 36 | 209,935 | 22 | -0- | -0- | 47,712 | 5 | 76,340 | 8 | 104,968 | 11 |
| Single-Parent Families with children** | 25 | 133,000 | 28 | -0- | -0- | -0- | -0- | 19,000 | 4 | 52,250 | 11 |
*Rate per 100,000. All others are in % terms.
**Children under 18.
***1999 data for SC is used in order to compare with 1999 national data.