This map/graph pair shows trends in the race/ethnicity of domestic adoptions in the USA during the FY 2012. The data include all adoptions completed via public agency, which generally represent foster care adoptions.

The map identifies the mode (either the majority or plurality) race/ethnicity of adopted children in each state. The state label shows the percentage of adopted children that are of that mode race/ethnicity – for example, in New York, the most common race of adopted children is black, and black children represent 46.2% of all children adopted via public agency in New York. The map clearly highlights the geographic trend – most states have a mode of white, but in southwestern states, the mode is children of Hispanic origin, which includes any race as long as their ethnicity is Hispanic. Children of Hispanic origin are not counted toward any of the race categories (e.g., white, black). The other non-white mode cluster is in the northeast, where black is the mode. Alaska and Hawaii also had non-white modes.

The scatter plot trio shows the distribution of white, black, and Hispanic adoptions for each state. The vertical axis represents the total number of public agency adoptions within each state. Each state is plotted once per graph. California and Texas data points have been labeled to clarify how to read the graph. Interestingly, the graphs show that there are many smaller states (with few adoptions) that have no black children adopted. Overall, however, adoptions of black children are more frequent than adoptions of Hispanic children. White is, of course, the most common, but does have a zero data point (DC).

Data source: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/race-2012