The Children’s Defense Fund has released The State of America’s Children 2011, a comprehensive look at child well-being in the United States with a focus on racial and ethnic differences.  The report provides data on the child population, child poverty, family structure, family income, child health, child hunger and nutrition, early childhood, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and gun violence.  Some key findings include:

• In 2009, more than one in three black children, one in three Hispanic children, and one in ten white non-Hispanic children, lived in poverty.
  
• Almost 60% of all children in poverty lived in single-parent families. However, 2.2 million married-couple families – nearly 9% more than in 2008 – lived in poverty in 2009.
  
• Two-thirds of poor children live in families in which at least one family member works.
• 23% of all children and 50% of black children live with their mother only.
• Almost 5% of black children live with grandparents; black children are twice as likely as all children to live with their grandparents only or other relatives.
• Black children are more than seven times as likely and Hispanic children are more than two-and-a-half times as likely as white children to have a parent in prison.
• In 2010 the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program benefited 3.4 million children, a 59% decrease from the number of children benefiting from TANF in 1996.
• One in five American Indian children, one in six Hispanic children and one in eight black children are uninsured compared to one in 14 white children.
• Infants born to black mothers are almost twice as likely to be born at low birthweight as infants born to white mothers, and more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday. The rate of babies born at low birthweight has increased by 22% since 1984.
• Almost 70% of mothers with children under six are in the workforce.
• The annual cost of center-based child care for a four-year-old is more than the annual in-state tuition at a public four-year college in 33 states and the District of Columbia.
  
• More than 60% of 4th, 8th and 12th grade public school students are reading or doing math below grade level; 79% percent or more of black and Hispanic students in these grades are reading or doing math below grade level.
  
• 35% percent of black and 29% of Hispanic high school students attend the more than 1,600 “dropout factories” across our country, where 60% or fewer of the freshman class will graduate in four years with a regular diploma.
  
• The U.S. spends almost two and a half times as much per prisoner as per public school pupil. Almost half of the states spend more than three times as much per prisoner as per public school pupil.
  
• In a study of education systems in 60 countries, the United States ranked 31^st in math achievement and 23rd in science achievement for 15-year-old students.
  
• Black youth represent only 17% of the overall youth population; however, they make up 62% of youth prosecuted in adult court.
  
• The annual number of firearm deaths of white children and teens decreased by about 54% between 1979 and 2007, while the deaths of black children and teen increased by 61%.