Kansas Action for Children recently released its annual KIDS COUNT report for the state of Kansas.
The report measures county-by-county how kids are doing across more than 20 indicators of health, education and economic success.
The report shows Riley County is making improvement and leading the state and its peer counties on the following health indicators:
Nearly 8% of Riley County youths use tobacco compared to 9% of the of the state and 10 % of peer counties. Just over 9% of Riley County youths binge drink compared to 10.6 % of the state and 11% of peer counties.
Despite improved trends in infant mortality, the rate in Riley County exceeds the state and peer counties. 2012 data shows the infant mortality rate was 7.6 per 1000 live births, while the state rate was 6 and the peer rate was 5.6.
In regards to education indicators, Riley County has a leading 92% reading proficiency rate of 5th graders. However, only 76% of high school students graduated during the 2011-2012 school year, which is 8% lower than both the state and peer counties. The most current data shows a downward trend in Riley County.
KIDS COUNT data is available for every Kansas county. To download Riley County’s fact sheet, visit www.kac.org/kidscount
