Adopted Children and Stepchildren: 2000

Although many data sources describe the living arrangements and characteristics of children in general, few are large enough to permit the analysis of children by whether they are the biological, adopted, or stepchildren of the householder. Census 2000 included “adopted son/daughter” for the first time in the decennial census as a category of relationship to the householder separate from “natural born son/daughter” and “stepson/stepdaughter” (Figure 1). The adoption category includes various types of adoption, such as: adoption of biologically related and unrelated children, adoption of stepchildren, adoption through private and public agencies, domestic and international adoptions, and independent and informal adoptions. Census 2000 is the principal source of data on adopted children and their families on a national level. See the Other Sources of Data and Data Quality sections of this report for more information about national level data on adopted children and stepchildren.