Ethnicity Facts and Figures: Adopted and Looked After Children

The Race Disparity Unit (RDU) has published a
new set of statistics covering adoption and looked-after children on the
‘Ethnicity facts and figures’ website, which brings together statistics
collected by government departments about the experiences of the UK’s ethnic
groups. The new page on adoption and looked after children shows the
numbers and percentages of children who were looked after and adopted, by
ethnicity, in the year ending March 2019, and over time from 2015-2019. Key
figures include:

• There were 78,150 looked after children on 31 March 2019, compared with 69,470 in 2015
• The number of looked after children who were adopted dropped from 5,360 to 3,570 between 2015 and 2019, with the percentage of children that stopped being looked after because they were adopted dropping from 17% to 12%
• White children were less likely to be in care (74%) and more likely to be adopted (83%) compared with their share of the population of all under-18 year olds (79%)
• Black children were more likely to be in care (8%) and less likely to be adopted (2%) compared with their share of the under-18 year old population (5%)
• Asian children were less likely to be in care (4%) and less likely to be adopted (1%) compared with their share of the under-18 year old population (10%)

Find out more here >