According to AFCARS Report #30, published by the Children’s Bureau, 343,077 children were in foster care in the United States on September 30, 2023. That’s a continued decline from 391,098 two years earlier. The report covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, with the exception of Washington and Wyoming, which had not submitted AFCARS 2020 data at the time of publication.
Over the course of FY2023, 527,180 children passed through the foster care system — that number includes children who entered, exited, or stayed in care during the fiscal year (October 2022 – September 2023).
Why are children removed from their homes?
AFCARS tracks the circumstances associated with each child’s removal into foster care. A single case can be associated with multiple circumstances, so the percentages below do not sum to 100%. In recent AFCARS reports, the leading reasons have been:
- Neglect — approximately 63%
- Parental drug abuse — approximately 35%
- Caretaker inability to cope — approximately 13%
- Physical abuse — approximately 12%
- Housing — approximately 10%
- Child behavior — approximately 8%
- Parental alcohol abuse — approximately 5%
The dominance of “neglect” in this list is one reason policy advocates increasingly point to economic supports — housing, cash assistance, child care — as child-welfare interventions, since many neglect findings are closely tied to poverty.
States with the largest foster care populations
The ten states with the highest number of children in foster care are consistently the largest states by overall population. Per the FY2023 AFCARS State Reports, California had 43,095 children in foster care at the end of FY2023, representing about 12.6% of the national total. Exact counts for the other top states shift year to year; check the AFCARS State Reports map for the latest figures for any state.
Across recent years, the states that consistently appear in the top 10 include:
- California
- Texas
- Florida
- Illinois
- New York
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Indiana
- Arizona
- Michigan or Missouri
Raw counts can mislead. A more useful comparison is children in foster care per 1,000 children, which normalizes for the state’s overall child population. By that measure, smaller states with higher rates — West Virginia, Montana, New Mexico, Alaska — often outrank larger states in per-capita terms. A future post will unpack that comparison.
Why the numbers vary by state
- Overall population. Bigger states have more children in care.
- Child poverty rate. Poverty is the strongest demographic correlate of child-welfare involvement.
- State policy and caseworker practice. Investigation thresholds and removal decisions differ by state.
- Reporting culture. Public and mandated reporting practices vary.
- Racial and ethnic demographics. Combined with structural factors, this shapes who gets reported and removed. See our post on racial composition of foster kids.
Children waiting for adoption
Of the children currently in foster care, a substantial subset are legally available for adoption and awaiting a permanent family. Recent AFCARS data has consistently shown more than 100,000 children in this “waiting” category. For an updated count and a way to learn about individual children, see AdoptUSKids and state-level adoption exchanges.
Related reading
- Who Enters Foster Care in the US?
- Racial Composition of Foster Kids in the US
- Don’t Confuse Foster Care with Adoption
Sources: AFCARS Report #30; AFCARS State Reports; Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, HHS. About StartFosterCare.org.