Statistics
This year in the UK, around 40,000 children and young people will enter the care system. That’s 109 every day.
There are currently around 99,000 children in the UK who are classified as looked-after away from home. An increase of 3% from the previous year.
More than 65,000 children live with almost 55,000 foster families across the UK.
The UK urgently needs to recruit 8,600 more foster families to meet the need.
At 31 December 2018, there were 2750 children waiting for adoption in England. 39% of these had been waiting eighteen months or more.
Ethnicity of looked after children
Ethnicity of looked after children
- 91% White
- 3% Mixed Ethnicity
- 2% Asian or Asian British
- 2% Black or Black British
- 2% Other
Ethnicity of looked after children
- 93% White
- 7% Other ethnicities including mixed race, Irish/Roma Travellers, Black, Chinese and Pakistani
Ethnicity of looked after children
- 74% White
- 10% Mixed
- 8% Black or black British
- 4% Asian or Asian British
- 4% Other ethnic groups, including Chinese
Ethnicity of looked after children (total looked-after population)
This is no longer collected as national data.
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