Kids Count Data Center

Definitions: Teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 who are not enrolled in high school and are not high school graduates. Those who have a GED or equivalent are included as high school graduates in this measure. The measure used here is defined as a “status dropout” rate. Inclusion of the group quarters population in the ACS in 2007 could have a noticeable impact on the universe population for this age group. Therefore, the 2007 ACS estimates might not be fully comparable to estimates prior to 2006. This measure focuses on teens ages 16 to 19 rather than young adults 16 to 24 because a large share of 18- to 24-year-olds migrate across state lines each year. The high interstate migration rates confound the connection between state policies and programs and state dropout rates. Raw numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand. More...

Data Source: Population Reference Bureau, analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey.

Footnotes: Updated September 2009.
S - Estimates suppressed when the confidence interval around the percentage is greater than 10 percentage points. N.A. – Data not available. A 90 percent confidence interval for each estimate can be found at Teens ages 16 to 19 not in school and not high school graduates.

Note: The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not included in maps and rankings because they are not states and therefore comparisons on many indicators of child well being are not meaningful.