- There are waiting lists of couples that would like to adopt infants with Downs Syndrome or spinal bifida.
- There are a large number of couples that would like to adopt terminally ill babies, including babies with AIDS.
- State and Federal adoption subsidy programs are available to assist parents with the costs of caring for a “special needs” child.
- 6 in 10 Americans have had personal experience with adoption, meaning that they themselves, a family member, or a close friend was adopted, had adopted a child, or had placed a child for adoption.1
- It is estimated that about 1 million children in the United States live with adoptive parents, and that between 2% to 4% of American families include an adopted child.2
- A study found that in 1987, 8% of all adoptions included parents and children of different races.3
- National Adoption Week is held annually the week of Thanksgiving.
- Adopted children may enjoy more socioeconomic advantages than children who remain with their unmarried birth mothers. Adoptive parents may tend to be better-educated and older with higher incomes.
- A growing number of children are now adopted through an attorney rather than through an adoption agency – with estimates ranging from one-half 4, to two-thirds of infant adoptions.5
- It is estimated that there are 30 to 40 couples waiting to adopt for every one infant that is put up for adoption according to Allan Hazlett, the president of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.
1. Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. (1997). Benchmark adoption survey: report on the findings. New York: Evan B. Donaldson Institute.
2. Stolley, K.S. (1993). Statistics on Adoption in the United States. The Future of Children: Adoption, Vol. 3, No. 1, 26-42.
3. Bachrach, et al., Adoption in the 1980s, at pg. 6, Advance Data, No. 181, National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1989).
4. Gilman, Lois and Freivalds, Susan, Adopting Smart, at 13-14, 2001 Adoption Guide (Adoptive Families Magazine).
5. Sokoloff, Burton, Antecedents of American Adoption, at 24, The Future of Children, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring 1993).
