While there are many kinds of adoption and record-keeping is inconsistent, the United States sees an estimated 75,000. to 100,000 adoptions each year. There are currently seven to eight million adults living in the U.S. who were adopted as children. That’s a lot of adoptions! Adoption statistics provide a picture of these people.
Who’s adopting?
Adoptive parents are typically older than biological parents. First-time adoptive moms are likely to be 35 to 44 years old. One reason for this is that couples who face infertility are more likely to adopt. However, first-time biological mothers are now 27 years old on average, compared with earlier generations who were usually under 25 when they had their first babies. Older moms are often better equipped to care for a baby than younger moms.
What’s more, older couples often adopt in order to make a casual caregiving arrangement legal.
When it comes to sex, men are more likely to adopt than women. Part of this is probably the larger number of stepparent adoptions among men. Looking at both single people who adopt and same-sex couples who adopt, we see more women in those groups. The proportion of adoptive dads is still higher than adoptive moms.
Adoptive parents in the U.S. are more likely to be white and non-Hispanic. The proportion of white people among adoptive parents is higher than the proportion in the population as a whole.
Rural Americans and veterans are more likely to adopt than the average.
Who’s being adopted?
About 62% of privately adopted children are newborns, while about half of the children adopted from the foster system are age 5 or older.
Domestic adoptions show patterns of ethnicity similar to the overall population in the adopted children. Since adoptive parents are more likely to be white, this means there are many transracial adoptions. Foster care adoptions are more likely to include sibling groups and special needs children.
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