Which is higher: the number of children who wish to be adopted or the number of adults who wish to adopt?

Question

Anybody with knowledge is welcome to answer, but please state your source (personal information or experience, informal survey, government data, work in the foster or adoption system).

I suppose another way, is there relatively equal supply and demand among adoption? Or, as I suspect, there is a greater demand for one than there is a supply for it?

That might sound impersonal, but I'm attempting to take an objective view at this issue.

Any statistics would be helpful as well. Thanks!

Answer 1

There is a far greater demand for healthy white infants than there is supply.

There is a much bigger supply of foster kids who genuinely need stable homes and families than there is a demand.

Answer 2

Adults who want to adopt.  I believe the ratio is now 1 infant for every 90 couples who want to adopt.

But I bet another big number might be people who wish they'd never been adopted, and raised by their families instead.

Answer 3

It depends on whether they want to adopt an infant, a healthy infant, or a child.  

With healthy infants, there are far more adults who want to adopt than infants available.  For unhealthy infants, there are more infants than adults wanting to adopt, but the disparity isn't too bad because the state allows a wider 'audience' to adopt.  For children over the age of 3,  there are far more children available than adults wanting to adopt.

I would add that race sometimes plays some role in this. For instance, my state restricts Am. Indian adoptions by Caucasians. The adoption has to be approved by the tribe leadership and they will rarely do so before searching for an Am. Indian couple to adopt.

Answer 4

Based on your original question, the answer would be children.  Just look at any of the websites devoted to "waiting" children who are in our foster care systems, plus any of the children who may have been abandoned to orphanages in other countries.  

Yet, I also understand why some people say adoptive couples.  While there are tons of children available, some adoptive parents tend to be "selective" with the process which makes it appear that there are more adoptive parents wishing to adopt than there are children.

Answer 5

In 2003, Thomas Atwood ( president of the NCFA, "national council for adoption ) suggested that there were over 2 million couples wanting to adopt a newborn of any description.

the NCFA is VERY pro-adoption, and are very anti-adoptee. They are the adoptee rights / reform advocates largest enemy.

I get literally sick to my stomach when I go to their site, so you may definitely want to check it out for yourself on any more "up to date" research by them on adoptive couples wanting to adopt. I won't go there, but that would be the place to find it if you can.

There are NO up to date statistical studies that have an actual "number" its all estimates, but the NCFA would have a good estimate of how many couples want to adopt, because that is who they market too.

As for all children available for adoption. The best accurate source for information that I choose to follow is www.childwelfare.gov  here is a direct link to the actual child waiting page http://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/fos...

The problem is there are plenty of children who want homes, and who need homes. But most of these children, aren't the type of children the "demanding couples wanting to adopt" are willing to take into their home.

The majority of prospective adoptive parents want newborn infants, not older children with dysfunctional backgrounds at no fault of their own. So they ( adoptable older children ) continue to sit there waiting for a caring family to take them in, while the newborns and infants get placed immediately. that's why the money  market changes so much according to race, age, and nationality.

I have been researching adoption for 6 years. I have lived adoption for 27. I have spoken to countless adoptees and adoptive parents as well as natural parents.

There is not an equal supply and demand. That is why there is coercion to get pregnant mothers to surrender their children to supply the "demand." I believe your suspicions are correct.

Answer 6

I'm sure the people who wish to be adopted is higher but if it actually came down to them leaving their family most of them would change their mind. I'd have to say in all honesty that the percentage is higher in people who wish to adopt. They are more sincere in their wishes.

Answer 7

the number of children because people want babies so lots of children end up not getting adopted

Answer 8

I don't know but I think its the children. Yes, there is thousands of parents but the problem is that they want babies!  Most people won't adopt a child over the age of 2. Which is so sad.

Answer 9

Definitely the number of children because most people want to adopt infants and most children waiting to be adopted are older.

Answer 10

the number of children needing to be adopted, i mean not many families outside of the USA are willing to adopt(with the exception of Europe) but even then there are rules in china which state only one child per household and in africa there is so much poverty and disease that the children need families to help them. South America is the same way, there are far more children then there are families. Most Americans have their own children or if they do not , only a few think of adoption, some of the reasons might be cost. To adopt an international child is quite expensive, up to $70,000 and a lot of people cannot afford that. To render the situation the cost has to lower and international aid has to grow.

Answer 11

the whole reason there is foster homes and group homes is because there arenot enough people willing to go through the whole process of adopting a child that isnt biologically thiers.  how can you have an objetive view? there is about 119000  children waiting to be adopted at any given time. this is on the low end. if there were enough families willing to adopt then we wouldnt have the system that we have. seriously, have you ever heard of a shortage of children for parents who want to adopt. the number is even higher there are millions of children who are homless and parentless around the world.

Answer 12

I looked into adoption prior to going to a fertility specialist.  There are a vast amount of children waiting to be adopted both nationally and internationally.  The majority of children waiting are over 5 years old and a majority of them have a special need of some type.  There are a large group of children in the 8-14 year old range and a majority of these are "minorities". The restrictions and guidelines set forth by adoption agencies make it a very time consuming (and expensive) process.  If you do want to adopt a child with special needs a lot of agencies offer government assistance or a monthly stipend to help cover medical costs, etc.  You will also qualify for a tax credit (a little over $10K) when you adopt any child. The restrictions on single parents and same s*x couples significantly decreases the number of adults who can adopt which is unfortunate.  The wait time to get your child can also be a deterrent.  The wait time for a new born can be up to a little over 2 years with some agencies.  It can be a VERY worthwhile experience, good luck!

Answer 13

the number of children

Answer 14

I'm not sure how many kids "wish" to be adopted.  I didn't wish to be adopted.  Probably most kids wish that their parents had been able to keep and raise them.  

As for the children that need to be adopted, the majority are non-infants that aren't generally not desirable to many adoptive parents.  So they languish in foster care.

Answer 15

the number of children. One website has 4,207 children waiting for adoption and 312 couples waiting to adopt.

Answer 16

It depends what type of adoption you're talking about.

For infant adoption: there are many more adults who want to adopt an infant than there are infants available for adoption.

For older child adoption: there are many more children waiting for permanency (adoption) than there are adults wanting to adopt them.

So... Infant adoption: demand outstrips supply.

        Older child adoption: supply outstrips demand.

This doesn't take into account race. If you factor in race, those basic truths still hold true, but the demand for an African American infant is less than the demand for a Caucasian infant. (Still generally more people wanting to adopt than babies available, though... but not necessarily in all regional geographic areas.) If you factor race into older child adoption, then the supply outstrips demand even MORE than it already does for African American children. (This has led some states to qualify African American foster children as "special needs," solely on the basis of their race--to entice people to adopt them by giving adoptive parents the state's special needs stipend. This, in case you care, is a hotly debated topic in the adoption ethics arena.)

Still, the bottom line? There aren't enough infants to meet the demand; while the supply of older children outstrips the demand.