In a study done by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Illinois placed 21st in Overall Child Well-being in 2021. There are four categories, all with their own rankings and data sets. They also list the data from 2010 to compare 2021 to.

The first category is Economic Well-being. It is based off of the economic security of children. This displays percentages of children with parents who don’t have stable employment, children in poverty, etc. Illinois ranks 22nd. One thing to note is that in this category, every data set showed improvement from the 2010 numbers.

The second category is Education, which puts the focus on students’ proficiency in subjects such as math and reading, and graduation rates. Illinois ranks a respectable 14, with only 14% of students not graduating on time.

The third category is Health. Obviously, this is an important one in gauging child well-being. It shows data for subjects like the child and teen death rate, which has happily improved since 2010. It also shows the amount of children without insurance, and babies with low birth rates, the latter of which has worsened since 2010.

The fourth category is Family and Community. This category looks at the support system of the children of Illinois. More children are now in single parent families compared to 2010, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are also fewer teen births in Illinois than there were in 2010.  Fewer children are living in high-poverty areas. Overall, everything in this category has arguably improved as well.

More information can be found at aecf.org/databook.