1998 Kids Count Data Book: State Profiles of Child Well-Being

The broad array of data presented each year in the Kids Count Data Book is intended to illuminate the status of America's children and to assess trends in their well-being. By updating the assessment every year, Kids Count provides ongoing benchmarks with which to evaluate efforts to improve the lives of children. States can see how they have advanced or regressed since 1985, and they can compare the status of their children to those in other states across several dimensions of well-being. Furthermore, yearly presentation of Kids Count data allows for incremental improvement year to year as new data become available and methodology is refined. (author)