Demographic and Social Changes taking place across Iowa

Many young Iowa children and their families are facing challenges in their day-to-day lives, according to the first part of a comprehensive early-childhood needs assessment conducted by the Child and Family Policy Center on behalf of Early Childhood Iowa.

The report, “A Baseline on Iowa’s Young Children: Capturing the Demand for Early-Childhood Services” documents in over 40 maps and charts social and demographic trends taking place in Iowa’s young-child population. The report can be found online at: http://cfpciowa.org/page.php?id=10029

Iowa has seen modest overall population growth in recent years, but relative quick growth among communities of color and/or Hispanic descent. In fact, population growth among young children is driven entirely by growth in these communities. Suburban areas of the state have also seen relatively fast growth, matching, and in some cases, beating national rates.

In addition to demographic data, the report identifies young children with characteristics that place them at higher risk of poor outcomes in school and beyond. For example:

• a quarter of Iowa mothers of young children have a high school diploma or less
• one in five young children live in households below the poverty line ($22,314 a year for a family of four in 2010)
• nearly in one in five starts kindergarten behind in some area of physical, cognitive or social-emotional development

Iowa also has one of the nation’s highest rates of workforce participation among parents of young children and a growing proportion of single parents — factors that often contribute to family stress and economic challenges.

Analyzing its 99 counties on a variety of risk factors, the report finds that children and families facing stresses are present in every Iowa community, but overrepresented in counties containing the state’s largest cities and “regional centers,” non-metropolitan towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people. Nearly two-thirds of Iowa’s young-child population — nearly 159,000 kids — lives in these one of these two types of counties. These counties are also home to all 32 of the state’s high-poverty census tracts, places where more than 30 percent of residents live in poverty and that exhibit a high degree of stress across multiple socio-economic indicators.

The next segments of the report will document the supply, capacity and quality of early-childhood services in Iowa and determine how well they are positioned to meet the current and projected future demand for quality services.

Early Childhood Iowa is a statewide alliance of stakeholders in early care, health and education systems that affect children ages prenatal to five years. Its purpose is to support the development and integration of an early care, health and education system for Iowa.