About Adopted Children

There are more than one million adopted children living in households across the United States. Of all U.S. adoptions, 40% are transracial adoptions, and almost a quarter of adopted children are adopted by relatives. Main motivations for adoption include wanting to provide a permanent home for a child and a desire to expand their family. More than 80% of adoptive parents report a relationship with their child that was warm and close and met or exceeded their expectations.

The statistics listed below are from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2008 National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP), the first extensive national study to be conducted for the sole purpose of gathering empirical data about adoption. This information is some of the only data that represent compiled public, private, and international adoption statistics and don’t include step-parent adoptions. The findings represent children under age 18 who were adopted and living with neither biological parent.

Gender

• Male: 49%
• Female: 51%

Age

• Age 0-2: 5%
• Age 3-4: 9%
• Age 5-9: 30%
• Age 10-12: 19%
• Age 13-14: 14%
• Age 15-17: 23%

Race/Ethnicity

The race of children adopted via international adoption is overwhelmingly Asian. With foster care, the majority of children adopted are white or black, and children adopted via private domestic adoption are mostly white.

Other Children

Of all foster parents, 40% have other adopted children and/or biological children, compared to only 21% of parents that adopt privately and 10% of parents that adopt internationally.

Percentage of Adopted Children whose Parents have Other Children

• Private Domestic Adoption: 21%
• Foster Care Adoption: 40%
• International Adoption: 10%

Birth Families

• 43% of adopted children lived with their birth families at some point prior to their adoption.
• 36% of children in non-relative adoptions have had post-adoption contact with their birth families, and around the same percentage of children have a pre-adoption agreement regarding openness.
• 71% of adopted children have known birth siblings. Of these, 29% have birth siblings also adopted by their adoptive parent(s).

Birth Siblings

Children adopted from foster care are more than twice as likely to be adopted with their birth siblings than children adopted privately or internationally.

Percentage of Children Adopted with Birth Siblings by Adoption Type

• Private Domestic Adoption: 15%
• Foster Care Adoption: 36%
• International Adoption: 7%

About Adoptive Parents

The following statistics represent parents who have adopted through all methods of adoption (private domestic adoption, foster care, and international adoption).

Average Age

• 44 years old

Marital Status

• Married couple: 69%
• Single or other: 29%
• Cohabiting: 2%

Race/Ethnicity

The majority of adoptive parents are white, and a substantial portion of adoptive parents are black. Only a small percentage of adoptive parents are hispanic.

Transracial Adoption

Overall, 40% of adopted children are of a different race, culture, or ethnicity than both of their adoptive parent(s).

Education Level and Income

Adopted children are more likely than children in the general population to live in families with an income above the poverty threshold and to have a parent who has completed education beyond high school.

Adoption by Relatives

• 24% of adopted children were adopted by relatives.
• 17% of foster children were adopted by relatives.
• 37% of those adopted privately were adopted by relatives.
• Very few of those adopted internationally were adopted by relatives.

Reasons for Adoption

The most common reason a family is motivated to adopt is their desire to provide a permanent home for a child.

Adoption Satisfaction

• 86% of adoptive parents report their relationship with their child met or exceeded their expectations.
• 81% of adoptive parents report their relationship with their child is very warm and close.
• 87% of adoptive parents said they would “definitely” make the same decision to adopt their child again, knowing everything then that they now know about their child.
• 92% of adoptive parents who have adopted children aged five and older have parents who perceive their child’s feelings towards the adoption as “positive” or “mostly positive”.

Engagement with Children

Adopted children aged five and under are more likely than all children from the same age group to be read to every day, be sung to or told stories every day, and participate in extracurricular activities.

Special Needs Adoption

It’s important to keep in mind that adopted children tend to be older than children in the general population, and many child and family well-being indicators differ according to children’s ages. When comparing well-being between adopted children and the general population of children, some differences may be attributable to the older ages, on average, of adopted children.

Of all adopted children, 85% are in excellent or very good health, but they are twice as likely as children in the general population to have special health care needs. Furthermore, one-third of adopted children receive some sort of mental health care, and adopted children are more likely than children in the general population to have health insurance.

Percentage of Adoptive Parents who Received Post-Adoption Services

Adopted children are twice as likely to have been diagnosed with and to have moderate or severe symptoms of depression, ADD/ADHD, or a behavior/conduct disorder. Despite the prevalence of special health care needs in adopted children, 88% of adopted children aged six and older exhibit positive social behaviors.

Children According to Measures of Social & Emotional Well-Being

Adopted Children According to their Health Status