May 2, 2006 -- Growing Up in North America

A new report highlights the conditions of children in the three countries—Canada, Mexico, and the United States—that make up North America and finds that the 120 million North American children are one-quarter of the people who live on this continent. The United States and Canada are "receiving countries," with more than 200 different ethnic origins in Canada and 39 percent of U.S. children described as "of color." Mexico, on the contrary, has one of the world’s lowest percentages of foreign-born residents. Children in the three nations are increasingly exposed to similar consumer goods, media messages, and social trends, but it is the sheer scale of migration from Mexico to the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada, that is most changing the face of the region and the lives of thousands of children, according to a report sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In all three countries, most children live in two-parent households, though the number of single-parent households in Mexico continues to rise. Most children in the three countries live in urban areas. Serious disparities among groups of children persist: “Within nations, not all children have the same opportunity to thrive,” the report points out. Infant mortality has declined in all three nations, and the rate of asthma in children has increased. Canadian children have universal access to publicly funded health services, but 11 percent of U.S. children under the age of 18 have no health coverage, and one-third of Mexican children had no access to either public or private health insurance in the year 2000. The report released today, "Growing Up in North America: Child Well-Being in Canada, the United States, and Mexico," is available online at www.childreninnorthamerica.org.