Domestic Adoption Statistics

The federal and state governments do not mandate that private domestic adoption statistics be recorded and tracked from year to year. For this reason, it is difficult to determine the number of families that have taken concrete steps to adopt domestically. The most recent reliable data related to adoption statistics dates from 1992. During this calendar year, 127,000 children were adopted. This total includes children that were adopted domestically and internationally, through both private agencies and attorney-facilitated adoptions; as well as through foster care and step-parent adoptions.

There is one trend that can be identified with a high degree of certainty. At the current time, a far greater number of adults seek to adopt newborn infants than the number of newborn infants available to be adopted. Published statistics indicate that there are 3.3 adoption seekers for every child that is actually adopted.

Additional statistics indicate that 20,000 or more newborn infants are placed for adoption each year in the United States. It is also true that 11% to 24% of couples that experience infertility decide to pursue adoption.