America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007

Structure of the Report

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007 presents a set of key indicators that measure important aspects of children's lives and are collected regularly, reliably, and rigorously by Federal agencies. The Forum chose these indicators through careful examination of available data. In determining this list of key indicators, the Forum sought input from the Federal policy-making community, foundations, academic researchers, and State and local children's service providers. These indicators were chosen because they meet the following criteria:

• Easy to understand by broad audiences;
• Objectively based on substantial research connecting them to child well-being and easily estimated using reliable data;
• Balanced, so that no single area of children's lives dominates the report;
• Measured regularly, so that they can be updated and show trends over time; and
• Representative of large segments of the population, rather than one particular group.

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007 is designed as a gateway to complement other, more technical or comprehensive reports produced by several Forum agencies. The report not only provides indicators covering seven domains of child well-being, but also includes supplementary information. Appendix A, Detailed Tables, presents tabulated data for each measure and additional detail not discussed in the main body of the report. Appendix B, Data Source Descriptions, describes the sources and surveys used to generate the background measures and the indicators.