Overall, the outcomes for youth aging out of care are not good. The national statistics for youth aging out of foster care vary depending upon the study, and the results that tend to be quoted throughout the Internet are usually from older research studies. The numbers that you will see out on the Internet are often averages or are taken from some more recognized “key” research studies, such as a national study done in 2011 called the “Midwest Study.” What we have done here is to list key study results below without making any general statements. We have listed results directly from research specific to the following outcomes:

• Education
• Employment
• Housing
• Pregnancy
• Justice System Involvement

When looking for statistics for this site, we found that even more recent literature reviews reference the older national studies. What is clear to us is that there is a need for new comprehensive studies designed to look at outcomes for foster youth at a national level. The studies that tend to be quoted are older and may not reflect today’s reality.

2013 Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative National Study:
Approximately 58% of young people leaving foster care each year will graduate high school by age 19 (compared to 87% of youth not in foster care)

2011 Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (a.k.a. Midwest Study):
11% of young women earned a college degree by age 26
5% of young men earned a college degree by age 26

2005 Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study:
Completion rates for postsecondary education were low:
16.1% earned a vocational degree
1.8% earned a bachelor degree

2011 Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (a.k.a. Midwest Study):
48% of young women were unemployed at age 26
61% of young men were unemployed at age 26

2005 Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study:
The employment rate among foster care alumni who were eligible for work age 20 to 34 was 80.1% (compared to the national average of 95%)

2011 Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (a.k.a. Midwest Study):
39% of youth reported having unstable housing (14.5% homeless and 24.5% couch surfing) at some point before age 26

2005 Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study:
22.2% experienced homelessness for one day or more within a year of leaving foster care (compared to 1% for youth not in foster care)

2020 Demographic, Health Care, and Fertility-related Characteristics of Adults Aged 18–44 Who Have Ever Been in Foster Care: United States, 2011–2017
50% of women ever in foster care had given birth to a child by age 20, and 80% had a first birth by age 30 (compared to 25% of women never in foster care having a first birth by age 20, and 66% by age 30)

2011 Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (a.k.a. Midwest Study):
80% of young women reported being pregnant by age 26
-71% were pregnant by age 21
-33% were pregnant by age 17-18
-62% were pregnant more than once
50% of young men in the study reported getting a girl pregnant (compared with 19% of the general population of men the same age)

2011 Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (a.k.a. Midwest Study):
-15%-20% of young women and 38%-41% of young men reported being arrested at some point before age 26
-6%-8% of young women and 19%-22% of young men reported being convicted at some point before age 26
-10%-17% of young women and 33%-40% of young men reported being incarcerated at some point before age 26