South Carolina Kids Count
No one is willing to accept the rank of children in South Carolina as 42nd 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 Number and Rate of Children in SC*** | Required Reduction in Number and Rate to Improve Ranking | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39th | 25th | 10th | 1st | ||||||||
| Rank | # | Rate | # | Rate | # | Rate | # | Rate | # | Rate | |
| Low Birthweight | 48 | 5,129 | 9.5 | 594 | 1.1 | 1,026 | 1.9 | 1,674 | 3.1 | 2,214 | 4.1 |
| Infant Mortality | 47 | 515 | 0.96 | 59 | 0.11 | 129 | 0.24 | 177 | 0.33 | 279 | 0.52 |
| Child Deaths (1-14)* | 36 | 217 | 29 | -0- | -0- | 37 | 5 | 67 | 9 | 135 | 18 |
| Teen Deaths (15-19)* | 33 | 187 | 66 | -0- | -0- | 20 | 7 | 62 | 22 | 94 | 33 |
| Births to Teens (15-17) | 42 | 3,224 | 4 | 322 | 0.4 | 1,128 | 1.4 | 1,612 | 2 | 2,337 | 2.9 |
| High School Dropouts (16-19) | 23 | 21,667 | 9 | -0- | -0- | -0- | -0- | 4,815 | 2 | 9,630 | 4 |
| Idle Teens (16-19) | 22 | 18,667 | 8 | -0- | -0- | -0- | -0- | 4,667 | 2 | 9,334 | 4 |
| Families without Steady Jobs** | 18 | 231,066 | 24 | -0- | -0- | -0- | -0- | 38,511 | 4 | 77,022 | 8 |
| Child Poverty** | 37 | 224,400 | 23 | -0- | -0- | 58,539 | 6 | 78,052 | 8 | 126,835 | 13 |
| Single-Parent Families with children** | 40 | 139,333 | 29 | 4,805 | 1 | 9,609 | 2 | 19,218 | 4 | 57,655 | 12 |
*Rate per 100,000. All others are in % terms.
**Children under 18.
***1998 data for SC calculated by Casey Foundation is used in order to compare with 1998 national data.