Data Book

You will notice that the 2023 Maine KIDS COUNT Data Book looks different. We hope the new design makes finding and interpreting the data more accessible.

Maine KIDS COUNT, a project of the Maine Children’s Alliance, is part of the national KIDS COUNT® network, a state-by-state effort funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) to track the status of children across the United States. The Maine KIDS COUNT Data Book, produced every other year, is the comprehensive report of the well-being of children in Maine. 

*KIDS COUNT is a registered trademark of the Annie E. Casey Foundation

Maine KIDS COUNT, a project of the Maine Children’s Alliance, is part of the national KIDS COUNT® network, a state-by-state effort funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) to track the status of children across the United States. The Maine KIDS COUNT Data Book, produced every other year, is the comprehensive report of the well-being of children in Maine.

In the 2017 Maine KIDS COUNT Data Book, the data signals some significant improvement on certain indicators. Alcohol, marijuana and cigarette use continued to decline, keeping up this trend from previous years. Graduation rates have improved slightly and child poverty decreased, although not to pre-recession rates. The data also highlights that infant mortality has increased, child and teen suicide has risen, and Maine now lags behind the nation in the rate of children with health insurance. 

While we have seen some improvement in median family incomes, not enough of our jobs provide family supporting wages, leaving 108,000 Maine kids (41 percent) in households struggling to pay for child care, housing, food and other basic needs. 

Many young children are living in households where incomes are not keeping up with the costs of raising a family. In 2010, Maine’s livable wage (the income needed for a family of three to meet their basic needs of rent, food, child care and health insurance) was $45,427. In 2012, approximately 45 percent of Maine children (116,000) lived in a low income family.

Almost 20 percent of Maine high school students do not graduate. But what’s often overlooked is that, even for those who do graduate, about 15 percent still end up “disconnected”—not in school, not employed or seeking employment. In 2010, Maine ranked 32nd in the percentage of young adults ages 25-29 with a bachelor’s degree or higher, well behind our New England neighbors and the nation as a whole. 

On a positive note, Maine children continue to be served by support systems that reduce the impact of the economy. Many of the programs that create support for low-income families and their children continue to have higher numbers being served than in years past.

The income and employment indicators contained in the the 2010 KIDS COUNT Data Book reflect, in part, the economic downturn that occurred across the country in 2009. 

We believe a pulic health issue that needs immediate attention is the decline in the immunization rate of Maine's children. 

In Maine, we have difficulty determining the impact of race on a child’s wellbeing. Each year we are asked for data that break down the indicators by race but Maine’s small minority population makes these data unavailable.

Data from the 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey show a slight increase in the percentage of high school students reporting alcohol use between 2003 and 2005 from 42.2% to 43.0%. There has also been a 9.8% increase in the percentage of high school students who report driving a vehicle when they had been drinking, and a 4.1% increase in their reports of riding in a vehicle driven by someone else who had been drinking. Motor vehicle crashes have long been, and continue to be, the leading cause of death of adolescents.