Polk County slipped to 53rd among Florida’s 67 counties in an annual ranking of childhood well-being, according to the Florida Policy Institute.
Polk stood at 51st in the previous report, released in December 2022.
The 2023 Florida Child Well-Being Index rates counties based on 16 indications in five categories: economic well-being, education, childcare affordability, health and family and community. The nonprofit developed the rankings using data from Kids Count, an annual survey from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Polk County, the ninth most populous in Florida, ranked best at 27th in childcare affordability, a category new to this year’s report. The survey found that Polk County residents spent 16.39% of their household income on childcare.
Among the repeated categories, Polk fared best in family and community, ranking 42nd. That marked a jump of five spots from last year.
That category included four criteria. The report found 34.31% of children living in single-parent families and 8.24% living in high-poverty areas. The survey documented 8.4 children per 1,000 in Polk County with verified maltreatment, while 8.23 youths per 1,000 had contact with the juvenile justice system.
The index ranked Polk County 44th in health, an improvement of 10 places from 2022. The category considered four factors, including the percentage of uninsured children — 6.7 for Polk.
The survey found 9.16% of babies with low birth weight and 41.01% of children considered overweight or obese in first, third and sixth grades. Among high school teens, 28.9% reported using drugs or alcohol in the previous 30 days.
Polk County placed 49th in economic well-being, slipping seven spots from 2022. The report found that 22.7% of the county’s children were living in poverty, and 10.37% of teens were not in school and not working.
The category also incorporated the county’s unemployment rate (3.5%) and the portion of residents paying more than 30% of their incomes on housing (30.2%).
The county had its lowest ranking in education at 56th, up one place from the previous year. The category drew upon four factors, two of them related to school testing.
The survey reported that 47% of Polk’s fourth-grade students were rated as not proficient in English and language arts, while 58% of eighth-graders were not proficient in math. Among 3- and 4-year-olds, 62.02% were not in school, according to the survey.
The index found that 21.7% of high school students did not graduate on time.
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St. Johns County ranked first overall, and Hendry County ranked last.
“Counties with higher rankings tend to be well-resourced places, where families can afford to invest in things like high-quality child care, education, and other opportunities for their children,” FPI said in a news release. “Counties that rank near the middle tend to have a mixture of well-resourced and less well-resourced areas, such as some larger counties with a combination of big cities and suburban and rural areas. Counties with lower rankings tend to be places that have borne the brunt of the state’s disinvestment in public services and where people face historic barriers to economic opportunity.”
The Florida Policy Institute describes itself as an independent and non-partisan nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing policies and budgets that improve the economic mobility and quality of life for all Floridians.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk County ranks 53rd in Florida in annual child well-being report
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