The 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book by the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks South Carolina 38th among states for overall child wellbeing.
That’s two places higher than in the foundation’s 2024 report.
KIDS COUNT measures 16 indicators in economic wellbeing, education, health, and family and community. The new data mostly measure numbers from 2023.
Compared to 2019, the percentages of children living in poverty and the percentage of children whose parents lack secure income dropped by 1 percentage point each – from 20% to 19% in poverty and from 28% to 27% living in work-insecure homes.
The percentages of children living in cost-burdened homes (26%) and teens not working or attending school (8%) stayed frozen.
Cost-burden is when 30% or more of household income goes to pay household expenses.
High school graduation rates improved from 16% to 19% between 2019 and 2022 and a greater percentage of children ages 3 and 4 were in school in 2023 than in 2019, but 68% of fourth graders remained not proficient in reading and three-quarters of eight-graders were not proficient in math in 2024 – a 5% uptick from 2019.
The state’s child and teen death rate worsened from 2019 to 2023. The report found the death rate had crept up to 36 children and teens per 100,000. More children also were identified as obese or overweight, and the percentage of children in the state not covered by health insurance remained at 6%.
According to the U.S. Census, there are about 1.1 million South Carolinians below the age of 18.
South Carolina children saw their biggest improvements in the family and community category. The percentages of children in single-parent homes, children living in homes lacking a head-of-household with a high school diploma, children living in high-poverty areas, and teen births all dropped – most notably the teen birth rate, which fell from 22 births per 100,000 in 2019 to 17 births per 100,000 in 2023.
Sarah Knox, senior director of policy and advocacy at Children’s Trust of South Carolina, said the KIDS COUNT data regularly show a nagging issue.
“The takeaway is that children and families in South Carolina need more support,” Knox said. "All children deserve to be living in strong families.”
