Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (WCCF) have worked together to provide a treasure trove of data on Wisconsin children on the revised easy-to-use KIDS COUNT website: http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data#WI/2/0
Tips for Using the KIDS COUNT Website
The website allows users to see Wisconsin indicators and trends, with some data at the county, Congressional district, school district, and city levels. The tool can also show how Wisconsin compares to other states, by asking for data for all states, and asking for Wisconsin’s rank. The Wisconsin data website indicates the source of the data:
an orange circle for WCCF
and a blue triangle for National KIDS COUNT
Indicators are organized by topic:
• Demographics
• Economic Well-Being
• Education
• Family and Community
• Health
• Safety and Risky Behaviors
Sample of data
In this blog, I selected 12 Wisconsin indicators relevant to early childhood development to show the kinds of data you can find.
—Dave Edie
| Selected Wisconsin Indicators | Year | Number | % | National Rank | Trends |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographics | |||||
| 1. Child population ages 0-4 (note you can find population by single age group as well) |
2011 | 354,582 | 27% of all children |
Percent the same as national percent |
Not much change over 4 years |
| 2. Child population by race | 2011 | 73% White 11% Hispanic 9% Black/ African American 2% Asian |
Hispanic increase of 2%, white decrease of 3% over 4 years |
||
| Economic Well-Being | |||||
| 3. Children under age 6 with all available parents in the labor force |
2011 | 299,000 | 73% | Tied for 4th highest |
5% increase over 8 years |
| 4. Children in poverty ages 0-5 | 2011 | 87,000 | 21% | Tied for 15th lowest rate of poverty |
Increase of 5% over 4 years |
| Education | |||||
| 5. Children ages 3-5 not enrolled in nursery school, preschool or kindergarten | 2011 | 91,000 | 42% | 25th rank | 2% improve- ment over 4 years |
| 6. Children ages 1-5 whose family members read to them less than 3 days a week | 2011- 2012 |
23,000 | 7% | Tied for 3rd best |
Improved slightly |
| 7. 4 year old kindergarten enrollment | 2012 | 45,438 | Increase of 60% over 4 years |
||
| 8. Fourth grade reading at or above proficiency | 2011 | 34% | Tied for 20th | Not much change |
|
| 9. Fourth graders who scored below proficient reading by race | 2011 | 61% White 61% Asian 87% Hispanic 88% Black/AA |
Varies, but WI ranks low for Black/AA |
Not much change |
|
| Health | |||||
| 10. Children without health insurance ages 0-5 | 2010 | 21,000 | 5% | Tied for 5th best |
2% increase over 10 yrs. |
| 11. Low birth-weight babies | 2010 | 4818 | 7% | Tied for 12th best | Fairly stable for last few years |
| 12. Low birth-weight babies by race: Black/AA | 2010 | 952 | 13.6% | WI is among 14 states with the highest rate of low birth-weight black/AA babies |
Not much change over 4 years |
