The Worst (and Best) States for Children's Health and Education

For the first time in five years, New Mexico has fallen to last among states when it comes to the economic, educational and medical well-being of its children, according to a nonprofit that tracks the status of U.S. kids.

Perhaps most troubling in the 2018 Kids Count Data Book, set for public release Wednesday by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, is New Mexico's steep drop in ranking for health care measures -- previously a bright spot for the state.

New Mexico steadily decreased its number of uninsured children between 2010 and 2015, to 4 percent from 10 percent, the Casey Foundation reported. But in 2016, that figure edged up to 5 percent, the 2018 report says.

That change, as well as an increase in the rate of teens who reported abusing drugs or alcohol, helped push the state from 37th in 2017 to 48th this year in health, one of four categories in which states are ranked in the Kids Count report (though the report notes a change in the data-reporting methodology on teen drug and alcohol use make year-over-year results difficult to compare).

Overall, Kids Count -- which analyzes data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- paints New Mexico as a dire place to be a child.

More