MONTGOMERY, Ala. (
WSFA
) – The
Kids Count Data Book
, an annual publication that ranks the well-being of children from all 50 states, has released its 2025 report, and the state of Alabama ranks near the bottom.
The publication contains recent data developed by the
Annie E. Casey Foundation
to judge how children are faring in post-pandemic America.
The rankings are based off indicators across four “domains”:
- Economic Well-Being
- Education
- Health
- Family and Community
According to the data book,
Alabama ranked 43rd for overall child well-being in 2025
, a drop from last year’s ranking of 39th place.
Voices for Alabama’s Children
, the official partner for Kids Count in Alabama, highlighted a number of mixed results for the state.
Results from the study showed that around 46,000 children in Alabama are living without health insurance, a 33% increase since 2019.
Voices for Alabama’s Children said in a written statement that the state’s “refusal to expand Medicaid” after pandemic-era coverage expired likely contributed to this increase.
“I am deeply concerned about Alabama’s high rate of uninsured children and such poor health outcomes,” Alabama State Representative Phillip Ensler said. “Alabama should have expanded Medicaid a long time ago to help insure more of our children.”
Another statistic at the forefront of the data for Alabama is the child poverty rate.
While the number of children living with parents lacking full-time employment has slightly decreased, around 235,000 children still live in poverty. This number has seen no significant change since 2019.
The data also shows more children are living in households that spend more than 30% of their income on housing compared to 2019.
Infant and maternal health is another area where Alabama falls behind other states. While the number of low birth-weight babies slightly decreased in 2023, Alabama still ranks 48th in the nation in this measure.
Here are some other key highlights for Alabama:
- During the 2021/22 school year, the number of high school students not graduating on time increased. This caused Alabama’s rank to drop from first in the nation from the previous school year to 13th.
- Only 18% of eighth graders in Alabama scored at or above proficient in math in 2024. This is a 3% drop compared to 2019.
- Child poverty has remained stagnant at 21%, which is more than 1 in 5 children, between 2019 and 2023
- Children living in households where the head of the family lacks a high school diploma improved in 2023, with a rate of 9% compared to 11% in 2019.
- The report showed a 27% decrease in the share of children living in high-poverty areas between 2019 and 2023 compared the period 2014-2018. (High poverty areas are defined as census tracts where the total population has a poverty rate of 30% or higher.
- Fewer children lived in single-parent households in 2023 compared to 2019.
A takeaway from 2025 report is that While Alabama improved in a couple of areas, it declined in more.
Voices for Alabama’s Children said this data should be a compelling call to action.
“It is proven that children with health insurance are more likely to get the preventive care that they deserve and have better health outcomes,” Representative Ensler added. “At the state and federal level, we should support policies, programs and funding that help close the health insurance gap and ensure access to affordable, quality care for all.”
Hartsfield added that Voice for Alabama’ Children will continue to support programs already in place like the
Presumptive Eligibility Program for Expecting Mothers
and the
All Kids Insurance for Children program
.
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