I came across a very interesting adoption infographic today that I wanted to share:
From the USC School of Social Work (via msw.usc.edu)
(source: http://msw.usc.edu/mswusc-blog/adoption-infographic/)
A couple of comments and things that stood out to me:
- I’m not a fan of their use of “orphan” to describe the children who are adopted. While their usage is technically accurate – at least from a legal perspective – when most people think of orphans, they think of children whose parents have died. I have never considered my two adopted children to be “orphans” because their birth parents are all living.
- I’m a little surprised that the overwhelmingly majority of adoptive parents (75%) are white.
- I wonder if same-sex couples were placed in the married or unmarried couple section in the adoptive parents pie chart.
- I’d love to know more about single men who have adopted. Are they going through the foster system, agencies, or what? I have a strange suspicion that trying to adopt as a single male would be harder than being a single woman, unmarried (hetero) couple, or a gay/lesbian couple.
- Wow. Look at the orphan numbers in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Just…wow.
- I’d like to see the numbers on adoptive parents who experienced a failed adoption prior to placement. I’ve always heard it is around 1 in 3, but hard numbers would be interesting.
- I’d also like to see the number of open adoptions, especially among U.S. children. The increase in open adoption has been a game changer, and I think it is a part of the reason why adoptions have increased 15% since 1990.
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