Adoption Under One Roof

As I mentioned in my prior blog, details on internationally adopted children have been released by the Office of Immigration Statistics. I like numbers because I think they add context.

I mean really.... When someone (adopion agency, stranger at the grocery store, email buddy) says most families adopted older children from Ukraine what does this actually mean? Well these numbers can help answer that question. But first I want to look at high-level trends.

The rate of growth for international adoptions has never been steady. The growth rate first dipped into negative territory in 2005. And notice the stagnate growth in 2003. The number of international adoptions completed by Americans in 2007 is about the same 2001.

My theory on why international adoptions have decreased is based on the availability of infants. I don't think gender has anything to do with it. If you remove China from the gender statistics, then on average Americans adopt equal numbers of boys and girls. China skews the gender statistics because 95% of the China adopted children are girls.

Here is why I think the drop in the number of international adoptions is an age thing. I believe that fewer infants were available in 2003 then expected. (Maybe this actually started in 2001/2002.) Bluntly, demand for infants was bigger then the supply. Some families adjusted their expectations and waited longer to complete their adoption. And some adopted children who were 1-4 years of age. And this is why international adoption didn't have a negative growth in 2004. But starting in 2005 there were even fewer young children available.

Twelve years ago, 54% of the international adopted children were under 1 year of age. In 2007 40% of the adopted children were under 1 year. It has become harder to adopt younger children for a variety of reasons. Some families just aren't willing to adopt older children. So they will wait 2 years to adopt an infant. Or they will decide to adopt domestically.

But there are other families who aren't as focused on age. So there has been an increase in older child adoptions.

• 1996 - 35% of children were 1-4 years of age
• 2007 - 43% of children were 1-4 years of age

• 1996 - 11% of children were 5 years or older
• 2007 - 17% of children were 5 years or older

 Next blog will start looking at adoption trends for different countries. I will start by looking at Ukraine because I adopted from there in 2000.

Related Links

• International Adoption Statistics for 2010
• International Adoption Statistics for 2009
• International Adoption Statistics for 2008
• International Adoption Statistics for 2007
• Ukraine Adoption Statistics
• Who Are The International Adopted Children?
• Who is Most Likely to Adopt?
• Adoption Statistics
• Foster Care Adoption Statistics
• Massachusetts and US Adoption Trends
• Race and Foster Care
• Research International Adoption Statistics
• Surprising Statistics On Russian Domestic Adoptions
• Teen Pregnancy Statistics