What the Numbers Say: A 2025 Snapshot of Kids’ Well-Being in RI
By Michaela Carroll, MPH, Health Policy Associate - RI KIDS COUNT
The latest Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook offers a deep dive into the health, education, economic well-being, and mental health of children across the state—spotlighting urgent issues like maternal and infant health, family structure, and behavioral health trends.
Read the blog for key highlights and insights.
Rhode Island KIDS COUNT was founded in 1994 as an outgrowth of the Rhode Island KIDS COUNT project, initiated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Rhode Island Foundation. It became an independent nonprofit in 1997, and seeks to improve the health, safety, education, economic well-being, and development of Rhode Island’s children with a commitment to equity and the elimination of unacceptable disparities by race, ethnicity, disability, zip code, immigration status, neighborhood, and income. It engages in information-based advocacy to achieve equitable public policies and programs for the improvement of children’s lives, regularly releasing data- and research-driven publications to share information with policymakers, community members, and advocates to keep them up to date on issues affecting Rhode Island’s children and families.
Rhode Island KIDS COUNT has been publishing the Factbook since 1995, providing a statistical portrait of the status of Rhode Island’s children and families. It incorporates the best available research and data, and presents a breakdown for the state of Rhode Island, each city and town, and an aggregate of the four core cities, which are the cities with the highest concentrations of child poverty. It tracks the progress of 68 indicators across five areas of child well-being. Health care providers, advocates, and policymakers use the Factbook to identify problems, track trends, and identify opportunities for improvement and promising programs. The annual Factbook is vital to advocate for the policies that affect Rhode Island’s children and families by breaking down data by city and town as well as race and ethnicity. This detailed data-driven portrait of Rhode Island highlights policies that have been successful in improving child well-being and reducing longstanding disparities as well as the work that remains to be done.
The 2025 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook includes three new indicators – Family Structure, Maternal Health, and Infant Health.
Family Structure
Family Structure is the percentage of children under age 18 who live in different family structures. In Rhode Island, children are almost twice as likely to live in married-couple households (59%) than in single-parent households (31%). An additional 8% of children live with a grandparent or another relative. Between 2019 and 2023, 4% of Rhode Island families lived in multigenerational households. According to the 2020 Census, 7% of Hispanic families, 7% of Asian families, and 6% of Black families live in multigenerational households in Rhode Island, compared to 3% of white families. Among major racial and ethnic groups, multigenerational families are less likely to live in poverty. Twelve percent of U.S. households say child care is a big factor in their living arrangements, with 9% of upper income adults considering it a factor, compared to 32% of lower-income adults.
Maternal Health
Maternal health before pregnancy (preconception), during pregnancy, and after birth (postpartum) impacts health outcomes for mothers and children. Currently, there is a maternal health crisis nationally and in Rhode Island. Beyond that, there are persistent racial and ethnic disparities that disproportionately impact health outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color. Access to primary care for women of reproductive age is a vital component of successful pregnancy care. In Rhode Island between 2019 and 2023, 16.0% of women who gave birth did not begin care until the second or third trimester, if at all. Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are the most common complication of pregnancy and the first year postpartum. Untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are estimated to cost Rhode Island $9.7 million annually. Postpartum mood and anxiety disorders can lead to trouble bonding with infants, among many other challenges. Infants who do not develop secure attachment are at risk for learning delays, relationship dysfunction, difficulty expressing emotions, and mental health disorders, which can be diagnosed and treated in infancy and toddlerhood. Across the United States, homicide is one of the leading causes of pregnancy-associated death. Forty percent of pregnancy-associated homicides are related to intimate partner violence. In Rhode Island, about three-quarters of women who had a well visit in the 12 months before pregnancy reported that their provider talked to them about intimate partner violence. Women living in poverty are at higher risk for poor pregnancy outcomes, and pregnancy exacerbates income disparities that have far-reaching consequences for children and families. In Rhode Island in 2023, nearly one in five women (19.7%) reported food or housing insecurity in the 12 months before birth.
Infant Health
Infant health is the rate of preterm births, low birthweight infants, and infant mortality. Children born preterm or with low birthweight may experience physical disabilities, learning difficulties, and mental or behavioral issues later in life. Children born at very low birthweight are almost 100 times more likely to die before age one than children born at normal birthweight. Infant mortality rates are associated with maternal health, race, and ethnicity; quality of and access to medical care; socioeconomic conditions; and public health practices. Social determinants (factors that influence health, such as economic well-being, education access, health care, community/environment, social context) are important to consider in preterm birth and low birth weight disparities. Stressors including income inequality, access to safe and affordable housing, toxic environmental exposures, and access to reproductive and health care, along with racism, discrimination, and associated social stressors are additional risk factors that disproportionately impact Black women and Women of Color.
Children’s Mental Health
The 2025 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook includes a great deal of data on behavioral health. Some of the key facts included in this year’s Factbook include:
In SFY 2024, 1,294 children under age 19 enrolled in Medicaid/RIte Care were hospitalized due to a mental health-related condition (up from 959 in SFY 2023), and 3,308 children had a mental health-related emergency department visit (up from 2,598 in SFY 2023).
According to the 2023 Rhode Island Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 9% of Rhode Island high school students reported attempting suicide one or more times in the 12 months before the survey was administered. Rates were higher for Hispanic (12%) and Black (10%) youth than for white youth and higher for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth (17%) and for other/questioning youth (20%) than for heterosexual youth (6%).
In 2023 in Rhode Island, 209 teens ages 13 to 19 were hospitalized after a suicide attempt, a 37% decrease from 328 teens in 2020.
In State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2024, 30% of children under age 19 enrolled in Medicaid had a mental health diagnosis. In the same year, nearly 1,300 children under 19 enrolled in Medicaid were hospitalized due to a mental health condition, up from 959 the year prior.
Policymakers, clinicians, and advocates can use data from the Factbook to advocates for the continuation of successful programs like the MomsPRN and PediPRN programs, which offers teleconsultation services for primary care providers to support their patients’ mental and behavioral health needs. Mobile Response and Stabilization Services, which provide 24/7 immediate emergency response for children’s mental and behavioral health emergencies, have successfully diverted children from the emergency room and connected them with appropriate services, but these services must be sustained through legislation and be accessible to all families, regardless of insurance provider. Discrimination in schools, child poverty, and lack of access to behavioral health care are also vital issues impacting children’s behavioral health.
