Does somebody know how many children were adopted from the United States?

Question

I know the number of international children who were adopted in America. But, I do not know the number of children from America.

Answer 1

That is something to think about, isn't it.  We have thousands of beautiful children available for adoption in the US, yet many people are adopting from other countries.  In the military, those stationed outside of the US who adopt, usually adopt other nations orphans, and fro  Asia, I have to think that S. Korea is either selling their unwanted children or those U.S. military couples who adopt them can't qualify to adopt an American child.  If they can't qualify to adopt and American child, then why are they allowed to bring into this country a child from another country. I have actually witnessed military wives, usually 2 or 3 bringing from Korea to Japan more than 7 or 8 Korean babies at on one trip to S. Korea.  Those military persons are stationed in Japan and they adopt kids from S. Korea.  We should make it most difficult to adopt from another country while our own orphans are kept waiting, and so many of them never are adopted. It is the same d**n foolish story in this country. And, how many US kids have been adopted by persons in other countries, maybe 2 o3r 3, and adopted into Asian countries, none.

Answer 2

Dear Mao,

Unfortunately, this is something that no one seems to have ACTUAL stats for. I find it a bit disturbing that there is not better record keeping on this subject available to the public.

Julie has given you some great information, I just wanted to add:

" US is now the fourth largest supplier of babies for adoption to Canada" -http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1027/p11s0...

"While the exact number of U.S. children placed for adoption in other countries is not reliably reported, adoption experts put the number at 500 annually a decade ago." -http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/FactOve...

MSNBC also ran a special on this subject but I have been unable to find a working link.

Answer 3

I had wondered this myself and looked into it last year. The government does not keep statistics on the number of children adopted by foreigners. There are a few agencies that deal in International adoption for American children. One of them is American adoptions. They always seem to have several families on there waiting. Mainly from Germany and the UK. It seems many countries, including Canada come to our country because of the fast African American programs. Now that America's most common programs for bringing infants home have stopped or slowed (China, Guatamala, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Tiawan) I see a shift happening where more and more Americans are beginning to open up to AA adoptions here at home. Also, since there has been a rise in Liberian and Ethiopian adoptions, it is not so uncommon and scary to raise a black child in a white family. There is a lot more help and info than there was just 5 years ago. I am wondering how this will effect our "export" numbers.

I think the government should keep a watch on these things. Many countries insist that they should their children in their own country whenever possible and that international is  a last resort. Why don't we?

Answer 4

Hi Mao N,

Try this page first: http://amfor.net/statistics.html#PREFACE

It has a great compilation of interesting adoption statistics.  It looks like 1.4 million domestic adoptions since the 1980's.



Here is the data:

"The 2000 Census tells us there are 281,421,906 Americans; it was the first Census to count "adopted children in the household."  However, until mid-2003, the Census withheld that data for 3 years.  It was then finally estimated, for 1 out of every 6 households counted, that :  

1.6-million "adopted children" are under age 18, or "born since the 1980s";

1.4-million were domestic adoptions;

200,000 (13%) of the adopted children were foreign-born;

     47,555 - from Korea

     21,053 - from China

     19,631 - from Russia

     18,000 - from Mexico

       7,793 - from India

2.5% of the U.S. population is estimate to be adopted children;

2.5% are estimated to be age 18 or over;

4.4-million step-kids are under 18, or

5% of the population is estimated to be step-children

     -2000 U.S. Census"

As far as American children being exported to other countries to be adopted, I found that is mostly comprised of Black children being adopted by Canadians.  This appears to involve at least 150 to as many as 500 children per year.  Here are some related links:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/1...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1027/p11s0...

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/200...

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/four.cf...

Hope this helps answer your question.

julie j

reunited adoptee

Answer 5

Do you mean children in the US adopted by Americans, or American children adopted by families in other countries.

According to 'Adoptive Families Magazine' there are aprox. 25,000- 30,000 children adopted domestically each year in the US (not including fostercare or relative adoptions)

http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/domestic...

Although the exact number of adoptions by foreigners is unknown, from what I've read it seems it's estimated to only be a few hundred.