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Foster Care Adoption: Facts & Figures
Every year, more than 107,000 children in foster care are available for adoption. Many spend more than five years waiting for permanent, loving homes.
Who are these waiting children?
Who are these waiting children?
- There are an estimated 440,000 children in foster care in the United States, and more than 123,000 of them are waiting to be adopted.
- Through no fault of their own, these children enter foster care as a result of abuse, neglect and/or abandonment.
- The average child waits for an adoptive family for more than two years.
- 19 percent spend 5 years or more waiting for a family (24,300 children). The average age of children waiting for an adoptive family is 8.
- 59,000 children are adopted from foster care.
- More than 20,000 children emancipate between the ages of 18 nad 21 without ever finding a forever family.
- Children in foster care are adopted by three types of families:
- former foster parents (51 percent)
- relatives (35 percent)
- non-relatives (14 percent) - Of the families who adopt children from foster care, 68 percent are married couples, 25 percent are single females, 3 percent are single males, and 3 percent are unmarried couples.
- A national survey in 2017 revealed that one-quarter of all Americans have considered adoption from foster care – more so than any other form of adoption, including private adoption of an infant or international adoption.