COLUMBIA, S.C. — Critical child and family well-being measures show minimal progress for kids in South Carolina, according to the 2025 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, a 50-state report of recent data developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation analyzing how children and families are faring in post-pandemic America. South Carolina ranks 38th in the annual report.
This improved national ranking, compared to last year’s rank of 40, reflects how South Carolina’s children measure against other states rather than indicating real progress for children and their families. Health and poverty indicators are particularly concerning.
“With too many children lacking health insurance and too many living in areas of concentrated poverty, children and their families are vulnerable in our state,” said Sue Williams, CEO of Children’s Trust of South Carolina. “We want every child in South Carolina to thrive, and this means they have a safe and stable place to sleep at night, a community with enough resources to help support them when they need help and access to a doctor for regular check-ups and when they get sick.”
Also of concern, in 2023, 37 percent of children in South Carolina lived in single-parent families. “Raising kids is hard work, and parents, especially single parents, need support and community,” added Williams. “With isolation as a key stressor for child abuse and neglect, we need more investments to help families build community and gain the tools to help them raise healthy and safe children before costly or heartbreaking interventions are needed later.”
Children’s Trust funds and supports a range of collaborative initiatives and proven prevention programs that help families before a crisis. These include its network of family resource centers—community places where families can access support services and information such as parenting classes, job training, school support, childcare and more. Children’s Trust also recently enhanced its parenting website, scParents.org, where families can readily access information, support and resources to help their children thrive.
Some indicators showed slight improvements. South Carolina has a slightly lower percentage of children (28 percent in 2022 compared to 27 percent in 2023) whose parents lack secure employment, along with an improvement in obesity rates (from 39 percent in 2020-21 to 34 percent in 2022-23) among children and teens.
“We celebrate these small victories. More families have steady income, and more children are not struggling with obesity. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that as a state, we continue to stagnate on critical measures for economic well-being, education, health and community,” added Williams.
Children’s Trust also published its most recent county-level child well-being profiles. Mirroring the national profiles, this tool gives leaders a snapshot of what is happening in their communities and insights for developing targeted strategies to help more children thrive. County Data Profiles can be accessed on the website at scchildren.org.
Release Information
The 2025 KIDS COUNT® Data Book will be available at aecf.org/databook. Journalists interested in creating maps, graphs and rankings in stories about the Data Book can use the KIDS COUNT Data Center at datacenter.aecf.org.
About Children’s Trust of South Carolina
Children’s Trust is the only statewide organization focused on preventing child abuse and neglect in South Carolina. It leads and supports a network that shares our belief that all children should thrive, live in secure families and be surrounded by supportive communities. Children’s Trust coordinates the state’s efforts for the Strengthening Families Program, Triple P (Positive Parenting Program), S.C. Adverse Childhood Experiences Initiative, Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting, Child Abuse Prevention Month, and KIDS COUNT. For more information, visit scChildren.org.
About the Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the nation’s young children, youth and young adults by developing solutions to strengthen families, build paths to economic opportunity and transform struggling communities into safer and healthier places to live, work and grow. For more information, visit aecf.org. KIDS COUNT® is a registered trademark of the Annie E. Casey Foundation