Adoption Records

Adoption Statistics

Adoptions are continuing to increase around the world. This is due in part to the amount of agencies that are available to help people adopt. Also, many movie stars and celebrities have adopted children, making it a newsworthy item. Many statistics can be found as they pertain to adoptions from specific countries. Some statistics are not available because there is no one governing institution that records them.

Foster care often leads to adoption. Foster care is comprised of children who are wards of the state or who are in temporary assignment due to abuse or neglect. Some of these children go on to be adopted while many actually go through their entire childhood in foster care. Children in foster care are typically older children – not infants.

Many children are “adopted” by relatives without going through legal adoptive measures. Sometimes the children born to young unwed women are cared for by the grandparents without formal adoption taking place. Other times, formal adoption does take place, often due to court orders.

International adoptions are rising greatly. This is possibly due to the fact that transracial families are becoming more freely accepted around the world.

The average adoptive family is made up of the following:

Married couples 67%

Single Women 28%

Single Men 3%

Unmarried Couples 2%

There are more than 119,000 children in the United Stated in foster care waiting for adoption. The number of children in foster care has doubled since 1987.

There are more than 60,000 children in foster care in the UK.

In the United States a survey indicated that four out of every ten people have considered adoption. This translates to over 80 million people. If one in every 500 Americans adopted they would take care of all the foster children in the system.

Children of many countries are adopted each year. In 2006 these were the top 20 countries that children were adopted from.

China
Guatemala
Russia
South Korea
Ethiopia
Kazakhstan
Ukraine
Liberia
Colombia
India
Haiti
Philippines
China (Taiwan born)
Vietnam
Mexico
Poland
Brazil
Nepal
Nigeria
Thailand

There are approximately 120,000 adoptions each year

The cost of domestic adoptions using public agencies was $2,500. The cost of international adoptions can range up to $30,000.

An estimated 15% of adoptions are trans-racial. That amount is on the rise. In 1997 it was estimated at about 8%.

90% of young mothers indicated that they would like to reunite with their child later on. 40 times more birth mothers than birth fathers are searching for their child.

International adoptions have tripled since 1997. International children who are adopted are called orphans.

Of children adopted from foster care approx. 62% are adopted by the foster care parents, 23% were adopted by relatives and 15% were adopted by unrelated families.