A look at adoptions in Trumbull County and nationally.

A look at adoptions in Trumbull County and nationally.

TRUMBULL

Number of adoptions taking place through the Trumbull County Children Services Board in 2007: 47.

Number of children in permanent custody waiting to be adopted: 23.

Number of children in foster care: 160. That number includes children in the agency’s temporary custody who may eventually be reunited with their biological family.

For more information, call (330) 372-2010.

NATIONAL

Between 2000 and 2006, more than 17,000 children were joined together with their forever families as part of National Adoption Day activities.

There are about 513,000 children in foster care in the U.S., and more than 114,000 of them are waiting to be adopted.

They enter the foster care system as a result of abuse, neglect and/or abandonment.

The average child waits for an adoptive family for more than three years.

21 percent spend five years or more waiting for a family (24,395 children).

The average age of children waiting for an adoptive family is 81⁄2.

Of the 114,000 children waiting for adoption, 36 percent are black non-Hispanic, 40 percent are white non-Hispanic, 15 percent are Hispanic, 2 percent are American Indian/Alaskan Native, 4 percent are two or more non-Hispanic races and 3 percent are unknown.

More than 51,000 children are adopted from foster care (about 18 percent of the foster care population).

24,407 children reach the age of 18 without ever finding a forever family (9 percent).

Children in foster care are adopted by three types of families: former foster parents (60 percent), relatives (25 percent) and nonrelatives (15 percent).

Of the families who adopt children from foster care, 68 percent are married couples, 27 percent are single females, 3 percent are single males, and 2 percent are unmarried couples.

Source: Trumbull County Children Services Board, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children