Welcome to Kids Count Alaska
Kids Count Alaska is part of a nationwide program, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, to collect and publicize information about children’s health, safety, and economic status. We pull together information from many sources and present it all in one place. We hope this site and our book give Alaskans a broad picture of how the state’s children are doing and provides parents, policymakers, and others interested in the welfare of children with information they need to improve life for children and families.
Highlights from the latest Kids Count Alaska data book
Alaska is celebrating 50 years as a state in 2009—and as part of the celebration, we decided to illustrate this year’s data book with historic photos of Alaska’s children before statehood. We also used information from the U.S. Census Bureau to take a broad look at how conditions have changed for Alaska’s children since statehood.
This book and all previous data books are available on our publications page, and each data book is divided into sections for faster downloading. Read our Highlights section to find some comparisons between the social and economic well-being of children in Alaska in 1959 and today.
- Children make up a smaller percentage of Alaskans.
- Babies are much more likely to survive.
- The number of children in Alaska’s public schools more than
doubled between 1960 and 2008—up from 50,324 to 128,381. - Alaskans in remote communities now have local high schools.
- Alaskans today are three times more likely to have high-school
diplomas.