World Care Day

World Care Day: Key Facts About Children in Care

These facts highlight what life looks like for children and young people who grow up without stable parental care. They explore the long-term challenges many face after leaving care, the global shift away from orphanages toward family-based solutions, the scale of children growing up without parental support worldwide, and the importance of recognizing children in care as rights-holders with a voice in decisions that affect their lives.

• Hidden Instability After Leaving Care

  Long after a foster care placement ends, many young people continue to face serious instability.

  In the United States, nearly one in five youth who age out of foster care experience homelessness within a year or two, and they are significantly more likely than their peers to be unemployed and to lack a high school diploma, underscoring how critical long‑term support and planning are for care-experienced young people. 

• The Global Shift Away From Orphanages

  Over the last few decades, many countries have deliberately moved away from large orphanages toward family-based and community-based care.

  Influenced by research showing that institutional care can harm children’s development, international guidelines now urge governments to prioritize options like foster care, kinship care, and small group homes, making residential institutions a last resort rather than a default.

• How Many Children Grow Up Without Parental Care

  Worldwide, tens of millions of children live without adequate parental care, and more than 147 million are classified as orphans, meaning they have lost one or both parents.

  Only a fraction of these children live in formal foster or residential care; many are in informal arrangements with relatives or neighbors, which can make them nearly invisible in official statistics and policy planning. 

• A Right To Be Heard, Not Just Helped

  International law recognizes that children in care are not only recipients of protection but also rights-holders with a voice.

  Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that children be given a chance to express their views freely in all matters affecting them and that those views be given due weight, a principle that underpins modern approaches to involving young people in their own care plans. 

• Youth Participation Improves Care Decisions

  Studies in child welfare have found that when young people actively participate in case planning and decision-making, they are more likely to experience stability, stay engaged in education, and feel respected by professionals. Involving children in meetings about their placement and future plans can also improve trust in the system and lead to more durable permanency outcomes. 

• Australia’s Reliance on Out-of-Home Care

  Australia illustrates how extensive formal care systems can become: around 45,000 children live in out-of-home care nationally at any given time, including foster care, kinship care, and residential settings.

  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are dramatically overrepresented in this system, which has prompted national reforms focused on keeping children safely connected to family, culture, and Country wherever possible. 

• Aging Out Without a Safety Net

  Child protection systems often provide intensive oversight while a child is in foster or residential care, but support can drop sharply when legal responsibility ends.

  In many jurisdictions, “aging out” occurs between 18 and 21 years old, and research shows that care leavers are more likely than their peers to struggle with housing, mental health, and income, highlighting the importance of extended care, mentoring, and gradual transitions into adulthood.