OVERVIEW
Rhode Island KIDS COUNT is a children's policy and information project sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the nation's largest foundation dedicated exclusively to disadvantaged children. KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. By providing policy makers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children.
The 1995 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook is the first annual profile of the Well-being of children in Rhode Island. The 1995 Factbook provides a statistical portrait of the status of children by examining the best available data on the state and its 39 cities and towns. The 1995 Factbook also presents data on five core cities: Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Newport and Central Falls, the communities in this state in which more than 15% of the children live in poverty.
The 1995 Factbook examines twenty indicators in five categories: Family and Community, Economic Well-Being, Health, Safety, and Education. Statewide, city/town, and core city data are presented for each indicator. The information on each indicator is organized as follows:
Definitions: A
description of the indicator and what it measures.
Significance: The
relationship of the indicator to child and family well-being.
Sidebars: Information
related to the indicator.
City/Town Tables:
Data for each indicator presented for each of Rhode Island's cities
and towns,
the state as a whole, and core cities.
While the 1995 Factbook is divided into sections involving aspects of child well-being, economic well-being, health, safety, and education, it is important to recognize for policy planning purposes that all of these areas are interrelated and critical at each stage of a child's development. The 1995 Factbook's focus is on the whole child as a developing individual within the context of family and community.
The purpose of the 1995 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook is to present the facts about the social condition of children in a timely, accessible, and credible manner. It is the hope of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT that the Factbook will empower community leaders, policy makers, advocates, and citizens to work toward changes which will improve the quality of life for all of Rhode Island's children.
COMMUNITY-BY-COMMUNITY PROFILES
The Factbook provides community-level information for each indicator in order to emphasize the significance of surrounding physical, social, and economic environment in shaping outcomes for children. The five core cities of Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Newport and Central Falls are highlighted for each indicator; they are the only communities in the state in which more than 15% of the children live in poverty. The young people most at risk of not achieving their full potential are young people in poverty. Poverty is linked to every KIDS COUNT indicator.
FAMILY and COMMUNITY
Child Population
DEFINITION
Child population is the percentage of the total population
that is under the age of 18.
SIGNIFICANCE
Rhode Island's population is diverse in terms of race, ethnicity,
language and country of origin. The diversity is most pronounced
among Rhode Island's children.
The proportion of non-white residents is nearly twice as great for those under age 18 as for the adult population. Over 25,000 Rhode Island children ages 5 to 17 speak a language other than English at home. although there were almost 17,00 fewer children living in Rhode Island in 1990 than in 1980, the number of African-American, Hispanic and Asian children increased while the number of white children decreased.
While the total population of children decreased from 1980 to 1990, the number of young children under age five increased by 20%. During the same period, the number of African-American children under age five increased by nearly 50%, the number of Hispanic children increased nearly three-fold and the number of Asian children nearly doubled.
RHODE ISLAND'S CHILDREN
Figure 1-1: Figure 1-2:
Figure 1-3: Figure 1-4:
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Table 1-1: CHILD POPULATION UNDER AGE 18, RHODE ISLAND, 1990
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City/Town Total Children Children Under 18
Population Under Age 18 Whites Non-White
N % % %
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Barrington 15,849 3,912 24.7 98.1 1.9
Bristol 21,625 4,380 20.3 98.5 1.5
Burrillville 16,230 4,479 27.6 99.5 0.5
Central Falls 17,637 4,810 27.3 68.5 31.5
Charlestown 6,478 1,575 24.3 96.1 3.9
Coventry 31,083 7,626 24.5 98.5 1.5
Cranston 76,060 14,673 19.3 93.6 6.4
Cumberland 29,038 6,427 22.1 98.6 1.4
East Greenwich 11,865 2,913 24.6 97.4 2.6
East Providence 50,380 10,657 21.2 89.8 10.2
Exeter 5,461 1,521 27.9 98.6 1.4
Foster 4,316 1,185 27.5 98.0 2.0
Glocester 9,227 2,526 27.4 98.8 1.2
Hopkinton 6,873 1,839 26.8 98.6 1.4
Jamestown 4,999 1,123 22.5 98.9 1.1
Johnston 26,542 5,332 20.1 97.7 2.3
Lincoln 18,045 3,890 21.6 97.4 2.6
Little Compton 3,339 750 22.5 99.1 0.9
Middletown 19,460 4,676 24.0 90.6 9.4
Narragansett 14,985 2,869 19.1 95.9 4.1
Newport 28,227 5,756 20.4 82.9 17.1
New Shoreham 836 163 19.5 96.9 3.1
North Kingstown 23,786 6,076 25.5 95.7 4.3
North Providence 32,090 5,655 17.6 95.9 4.1
North Smithfield 10,497 2,332 22.2 98.8 1.2
Pawtucket 72,644 16,719 23.0 83.8 16.2
Portsmouth 16,857 4,175 24.8 97.1 2.9
Providence 160,728 37,972 23.6 53.1 46.9
Richmond 5,351 1,565 29.2 96.4 3.6
Scituate 9,796 2,426 24.8 99.0 1.0
Smithfield 19,163 3,898 20.3 97.8 2.2
South Kingstown 24,631 4,770 19.4 92.6 7.4
Tiverton 14,312 3,166 22.1 99.2 0.8
Warren 11,385 2,452 21.5 98.7 1.3
Warwick 85,427 18,322 21.4 97.3 2.7
Westerly 21,605 4,988 23.1 97.0 3.0
West Greenwich 3,492 915 26.2 98.4 1.6
West Warwick 29,268 6,560 22.4 96.6 3.4
Woonsocket 43,877 10,617 24.2 88.4 11.6
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STATE TOTAL 1,003,464 225,690 22.5 86.8 13.2
Core City 323,113 75,874 23.5 68.0 32.0
Remainder of State 680,351 149,816 22.0 96.3 3.7
SOURCE OF DATA FOR TABLEU.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population. Core cities are Providence, Pawtucket,
Woonsocket, Newport and Central Falls.
REFERENCES FOR INDICATORAll data are from the US Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population, unless otherwise
noted.
Rhode Island's Children and Families; A statistical Abstract, (1994), A> Alfred Taubman Center
for Public Policy and American Institutions, Brown University; The Providence Plan; The Rhode
Island Foundation; United Way of Southeastern New England; Providence, RI.
KIDS COUNT 1994 Data Book; State Profile of Child Well-Being, (1994), Annie E. Casey Foundation; Baltimore, MD.
Children in Single Parent Families
DEFINITION
Children in single parent families is the percentage of
children under 18 who live in families headed by a person - male or
female - without a spouse present in the home. These numbers include
"own children" defined as never-married children under 18 who are
related to the family head by birth, marriage, or adoption.
SIGNIFICANCE
Although most children live with two parents, one in five Rhode
Island children live in a single parent family in 1990. Twenty-eight
percent of all Rhode Island births in 1991 were to unmarried women.
This increases to 46% in the core cities of Providence, Pawtucket,
Woonsocket, Newport and Central Falls. The increase in single parent
families over the past three decades has occurred across all races
and income levels.
Single parents with limited education are at increased risk of social and economic problems. When the single parent is a women, the risk of falling into poverty is greater due partly to the wage gap between women and men, and inadequate child support.
Figure 1-5:
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In Rhode Island in 1990, four out
of ten female-headed families with children were living below the
poverty line.
Most poverty, including that of
female-headed families, occurs because of factors related to
employment, wages and the availability of jobs, education and
training for productive participation in the labor force.
25.8% of Rhode Island's
female-headed families received child support or alimony in 1992.
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Table 1-2: CHILDREN'S LIVING ARRANGEMENTS, RHODE ISLAND 1990
_________________________________________________________________________
Total Number of Own children under 18 years
Total Family Housholds Two-Parent Family Single-Parent Family
CIty/Town With own children <18 N % N %
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Barrington 2,035 3,514 94.4 207 5.6
Bristol 2,300 3,660 88.9 457 11.1
Burrillville 2,314 3,824 87.2 560 12.8
Central Falls 2,373 2,859 61.7 1,778 38.3
Charlestown 833 1,244 83.0 254 17.0
Coventry 3,979 6,290 87.2 920 12.8
Cranston 7,911 11,360 81.2 2,622 18.8
Cumberland 3,491 5,551 90.2 604 9.8
East Greenwich 1,609 2,521 88.3 335 11.7
East Providence 5,766 7,950 81.7 1,776 18.3
Exeter 768 1,278 90.6 132 9.4
Foster 591 988 88.2 132 11.8
Glocester 1,320 2,036 88.6 261 11.4
Hopkinton 930 1,557 90.2 170 9.8
Jamestown 623 907 83.4 181 16.6
Johnston 2,851 4,229 81.7 945 18.3
Lincoln 2,181 3,210 86.1 518 13.9
Little Compton 420 612 89.7 70 10.3
Middletown 2,429 3,774 85.1 659 14.9
Narragansett 1,551 2,227 85.2 387 14.8
New Shoreham 97 149 88.7 19 11.3
Newport 3,086 3569 65.0 1,920 35.0
North Kingstown 3,299 4,943 85.1 864 14.9
North Providence 3,115 4,563 86.6 706 13.4
North Smithfield 1,284 1,935 91.1 188 8.9
Pawtucket 8,957 11,266 73.9 3,976 26.1
Portsmouth 2,429 3,749 91.7 339 8.3
Providence 17,948 19,292 56.2 15,054 43.8
Richmond 791 1,344 94.9 72 5.1
Scituate 1,275 2,079 90.1 228 9.9
Smithfield 2,095 3,324 91.0 330 9.0
South Kingstown 2,603 3,681 81.8 819 18.2
Tiverton 1,727 2,477 84.0 472 16.0
Warren 1,356 1,880 83.8 364 16.2
Warwick 9,505 14,477 83.6 2,835 16.4
West Greenwich 464 715 86.0 116 14.0
West Warwick 3,529 4711 77.3 1,386 22.7
Westerly 2,746 4,071 85.7 680 14.3
Woonsocket 5,650 6,850 68.6 3,140 31.4
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Rhode Island 118,231 164,666 78.0 46,476 22.0
Core Cities 38,014 40,416 62.8 23,967 37.2
Remainder of State 80,217 124,250 84.7 22,509 15.3
SOURCE OF DATA FOR TABLEU.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population. Core cities are Providence, Pawtucket,
Woonsocket, Newport and Central Falls.
REFERENCES FOR INDICATORAll data are from the US Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population and Rhode Island
Department of Health, Division of Family Health, Maternal and Child Health Data Base, 1991.
Rhode Island's Children and Families; A statistical Abstract, (1994), A> Alfred Taubman Center
for Public Policy and American Institutions, Brown University; The Providence Plan; The Rhode
Island Foundation; United Way of Southeastern New England; Providence, RI.
KIDS COUNT 1994 Data Book; State Profile of Child Well-Being, (1994), Annie E. Casey Foundation; Baltimore, MD.
KIDS COUNT 1994 Data Book, State Profile of Child Well-Being,(1994), Annie E. Casey Foundation,
Baltimore, MD.
Statement on Key Welfare Reform Issues; The Empirical Evidence, (1995), Tufts University Center on Hunger,
Poverty and Nutrition Policy; Medford, MA.
Maternal and Child Health Data Book for the State of Rhode Island 1987-1991, (1995), Rhode Island Department
of Health; Providence, RI.
Starting Points; Meeting the Needs of Our Younger Children, (1994), Carnegie Corporation; New York, NY.
[Table of Contents] [Economic Well-Being]
