Annual “Kids Count” report finds few improvements to the well-being of Tennessee children

Published by the Tennessee Lookout, Reporter Anita Wahwani – June 14, 2023

An annual report on the state of Tennessee kids has found slight improvements in child poverty rates but limited — and even downward —shifts in longstanding poor outcomes to their health, education and well-being.

The report, the 2023 Kids Count Data Book by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, measured the state’s performance in 16 different categories in order to paint a portrait of how Tennessee kids are doing.

Overall, Tennessee this year ranks 36th among the states when it comes to its children, a stubborn bottom-half ranking it has not shed since the analysis first began in 2011.

The percentage of three- and four-year-old children who are not in school has increased, rates of low-birth-weight babies have climbed, childhood obesity has ticked up and the rate of kids dying in Tennessee has significantly spiked between 2019 and 2021, the data found.