In 2021, about 206,812 children in the United States entered into foster care in that year. This is a decrease from the previous year, when 216,842 children across the country entered into foster care.

CSV representation of the metrics No. of Children in Foster Care General 2021 for 2021

In 2021, the majority of children living in foster care in the United States were living in foster homes. In that year, about 171,627 children were living in a foster family home with people to whom they were not related.

In 2021, there were 168,063 white children in foster care in the United States. This is compared to 86,645 Black or African American children and 85,215 Hispanic children who were in foster care.

Foster care in the United States

Foster care is where minors are taken care of in different institutions, such as a group home or private home of a caregiver certified by the state (called a foster parent). The procedure for becoming a foster parent in the United States varies from state to state. It is up to the state to determine the process; however it is overseen by the Department of Child Protective Services. It is sometimes seen as a precursor to adoption, which is different from fostering a child. There are many barriers to fostering and adopting children, such as high costs and long wait times, which can discourage people from doing it.

Who are foster children?

The number of children in foster care in the United States has decreased slightly since 2011. When looked at by age, most of the children in foster care in 2020 were one year old, and slightly more male children were in foster care than female children. Most of the children in foster care were placed into non-relative foster family homes, and in most cases, the primary goal of foster care is to reunify children with their parents or primary caregivers.

CSV representation of the metrics No. of Children in Relative Foster Care 2021 for 2021

Performance metrics for by year No. of Children in Foster Care General in a Private Placement Data Resources (2) JSON Json representation of the metrics No. of Children in Foster Care General in a Private Placement for 2021 Preview Download CSV CSV representation of the metrics No. of Children in Foster Care General in a Private Placement 2021 for 2021

In the United States, most children living in foster care were in foster care for two years or less. However, in 2021, about 23,493 children living in foster care were in foster care for five years or more.

VariableDescriptionTime FrameChildren in foster carePoint in time counts of children placed in Foster Care.Point in time data as of 12/31/2021If an estimated child population for a CSA for any of the above categories (denominator) was 50 or less, the number of referrals or cases (numerator) for that ethnicity was reduced to zero. CSAs range in size and population, from the City of Long Beach to small unincorporated enclaves encompassing a few city blocks. Communities that had low overall populations might have a “Gossip Factor”, in which counts for all ethnicities were reduced to zero.

Json representation of the metrics No. of Children in Relative Foster Care with a Written Care Plan for 2021 Preview Download CSV CSV representation of the metrics No. of Children in Relative Foster Care with a Written Care Plan 2021 for 2021

Json representation of the metrics No. of Children in Relative Foster Care with an Allocated Social Worker for 2021 Preview Download CSV CSV representation of the metrics No. of Children in Relative Foster Care with an Allocated Social Worker 2021 for 2021

In the United States, the goal in the majority of foster care cases was to reunite children with their parents or primary caretakers. In 2021, this was the case for 201,297 children, or about 53 percent of the children in the foster care system.

In 2021, around 214,971 children in the United States exited foster care in that year. This is a decrease from the previous year, when about 224,425 children across the country exited foster care.

Performance metrics for by year No. of Children in Foster Care General with an Allocated Social Worker

According to a survey conducted in 2021, ** percent of Americans approved of parents adopting a child of a different race in the United States while ** percent of Americans approved of parents in a same sex relationship adopting a child in the United States.

No. of Children in Relative Foster Care 2021. Published by Tusla. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0).Performance metrics for by year No. of Children in Relative Foster Care...

CSV representation of the metrics No. of Approved General Foster Carers on the Panel 2021 for 2021

In 2021, about 35,940 children who were adopted in the United States with public agency involvement were adopted by a married couple. In that same year, a further 13,307 children in the country were adopted by a single woman.

The data shows number of children placed in foster families by gender from year 2004 to 2021

Json representation of the metrics No. of Approved Relative Foster Carers with an Allocated Link Worker for 2021 Preview Download CSV CSV representation of the metrics No. of Approved Relative Foster Carers with an Allocated Link Worker 2021 for 2021

In 2022, about 368,530 children in the United States were living in foster care. This is a sharp decrease from the previous year, when about 407,318 children were living in foster care nationwide.