Minnesota tops kids' well-being, N.D. ranks No.7

For a second straight year, Minnesota ranked first and North Dakota seventh in a national report that tracks the well-being of children.

The Kids Count 2003 report released today shows children generally were better off in 2000 than they were in 1990.

Nationwide, mortality rates for infants to teens fell while the rate of kids living in poverty dropped from 20 percent to 17 percent in the 10-year period, the report said.

Minnesota ranked first overall and no lower than 11th in 10 individual indicators of children's quality of life.

"We were thrilled to rate so high," said Diane Benjamin, the state's Kids Count director. "It should make us proud to be Minnesotans."

The state led the nation in two indicators outlined in the 224-page national report based on 2000 figures, the latest year in which they were available.

Sixteen percent of Minnesota children lived in a family where no parent had full-time, year-round work, compared to 24 percent nationwide.

The state's percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds not attending school or working, 4 percent, was half the national rate, according to the report.

The lone area where Minnesota dropped from 1990 to 2000 was in its percentage of low birth-weight babies -- those weighing less than 5.5 pounds.

That percentage rose from 5.1 percent in 1990 to 6.1 percent in 2000, the report said.

Benjamin attributed the rise to an increase in multiple births and a decrease in infant mortality rates.

"Medicine has improved. Our doctors are saving babies now that would have died a decade ago," she said.

North Dakota finished seventh in the report for a second consecutive year, although its percentage of teens ages 16 to 19 who dropped out of school, 4 percent, was the lowest the nation.

"I think that shows the families in our state recognize the value of education," said Richard Rathge, North Dakota's Kids Count director.

The state finished third in the number of idle teens ages 16 to 19 and seventh among its peers in teens deaths.

There were 69 deaths per 100,000 teens ages 15 to 19 in 1990, compared to 39 deaths in 2000, the report said. Nationally, the rate was 51 deaths per 100,000 teens in 2000.

The report said the rate of single-parent families in the state rose from 16 percent in 1990 to 25 percent in 2000.

Rathge said he was alarmed by the jump. "We rank ninth-lowest among states in that area, but it's still a significant increase," he said.

Now in its 14th year, the Kids Count report is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore charity that helps disadvantaged children.

The top three states ranked in the report were Minnesota, New Hampshire and Utah.

The bottom three states for children's well-being listed in the national report were Alabama, 48th, Louisiana, 49th, and Mississippi, 50th.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Cole Short at (701) 241-5557