Missouri ranks 26th in the just released 2015 KIDS COUNT national data book.

Missouri showed improvement in education and health rankings but worsened on child poverty measures, children in single-parent families and children living in high-poverty areas.

Missouri's overall ranking improved, but largely this was due to worsening conditions in other states and not overall improvements in Missouri. The 2015 ranking matches Missouri's 2012 ranking.

Some neighboring states are higher; others are lower. 

Here's the 2015 overall rank for neighboring states: Iowa (4); Nebraska (10); Kansas (15); Illinois (20); Kentucky (34); Tennessee (36); Oklahoma (39) and Arkansas (44).

The highest ranked state was Minnesota; the lowest Mississippi.

More details about what efforts are underway in Missouri to improve outcomes for children is available from Missouri KIDS COUNT - a diverse team of public sector, non-profit and other groups which share data and stories to promote positive social change.

KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state effort to track the well-being of children through high quality data.

The 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book offers relevant analysis of childhood well-being and county rankings, as well as issue and policy analysis.

The 2015 report ranks states on overall child well-being and in four categories:

1. Economic well-being
2. Education
3. Health
4. Family and community

Download the National KIDS COUNT Booklet

Download the Missouri KIDS COUNT Overview

Access the Missouri raw data

Missouri KIDS COUNT

The Family and Community Trust (FACT) is the Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT grantee in Missouri.

FACT is a non-profit organization supporting 20 community partnerships around the state whose  mission is to find solutions to improve the lives of families and children in their communities. LINC is the community partnership for the Kansas City area.