Families Continue to Struggle as Georgia Falls Two Places
Georgia slips in economic well-being, more children and teens are dying, we continue to be in the bottom 10 in low birthweight.
Georgia ranks 39th out of 50 states in the nation for overall child and family well-being in the 2025 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, falling two spots from the 2024 report. This ranking marks a troubling reversal after making progress in recent years. It’s the Peach State’s lowest overall ranking in seven years.
Georgia ranked 48th in the inaugural KIDS COUNT Data Book released in 1990 but hasn’t been in the bottom 10 states since 2017. After holding steady at 38th for several years, we achieved our highest ranking of 37th in 2023 and maintained that in 2024.
“This slip in progress is a stark reminder that we must persist in our work toward measurably better outcomes for all our children, families, and communities,” said Georgia Family Connection Partnership Executive Director Gaye Smith. “It’s particularly troubling to see the startling increase in the number of teens and children dying in our state, and to lose ground in areas like economic well-being and education, where Georgia has made some gains and performed relatively well in recent years. When we dig deeper into the data, it’s clear that success for some does not always translate into success for all.”
The KIDS COUNT® Data Book uses 16 indicators to rank each state across four domains—health, education, economic well-being, and family and community—to assess child and family well-being.
This year’s Data Book reveals that Georgia has slipped or plateaued in some indicators, while neighboring states have continued to improve and outpace our progress, particularly in economic well-being and education. Georgia continues to struggle in the family and community and health domains, reflecting an increase in our child and teen death rate and only a nominal improvement to our stubbornly high low-birthweight rate.
Georgia’s overall ranking in the health domain improved from 43rd to 40th. However, we continue to hover near the bottom 10 in the nation, due in part to our low-birthweight rate, which has remained consistently higher than the national average since 2010.
Georgia’s low-birthweight rate was 10.2% in 2023, representing the first decrease in three years. However, Georgia still ranks 47th in the nation and is well above the national rate of 8.6%, which is already higher than the rate for most developed nations. Low birthweight is the strongest predictor of infant mortality and provides insight into the state of women’s overall health.
Another alarming trend in Georgia is that 941 teens and children died in 2023, marking a 21% increase since 2019 and ranking Georgia 34th in the nation. The child and teen death rate also increased nationwide but at a slower pace of 16%.
The percentage of Georgia’s children without health insurance held steady at 6% from 2022 to 2023. This still resulted in 5,000 more children without health insurance in 2023 compared to the previous year. However, the number of children in Georgia without health insurance has decreased by 14% since 2019.
Georgia continues to perform in the bottom 10 states in the family and community context domain, garnering our lowest national ranking at 42nd.
The percent of children in single-parent families in Georgia in 2023 was 38%, which continues to be higher than the national rate of 34%. And the percent of children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma in Georgia worsened from 11% in 2022 to 12% in 2023. This 1% increase represents an additional 14,000 children living in these households, ranking Georgia 44th in this indicator.
The 2023 teen birth rate in Georgia was 17 teen births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19. While the state has seen a 15% improvement since 2019, Georgia’s recent teen birth rates remained higher than the national rate of 13 teen births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19 in 2023—and has been outpaced by the nation’s 24% improvement rate since 2019.
“We’re rightfully proud that Georgia has for years been ranked the number one state in the nation in which to do business—especially since our workforce and education system are consistently touted among the top reasons we receive this recognition,” said Smith. “But we can’t stop there. We must always push the boundaries as we strive to ensure that this positive measure of opportunity for Georgia’s businesses ultimately translates into positive outcomes for Georgia’s families.”
Download the 2025 KIDS COUNT® Data Book.
Explore the interactive 2025 Data Book.
Download the 2025 Georgia Data Profile.
Download the 2025 Georgia Profile in Spanish.
Journalists interested in creating maps, graphs, and rankings in stories about the 2025 Data Book can visit our Georgia KIDS COUNT page.