A Child’s Day (3 Years Ago)

A Child’s Day: 2004 examines the well-being of children younger than 18 and provides an updated look into how they spend their days. Published by the U.S. Census Bureau, the report (summary here) is based on the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and addresses children’s living arrangements, family characteristics, time spent in child care, academic experience, extracurricular activities and more.

Main points: Parents are more active in raising their children and children get less television time.

Other highlights:

- About half of all children 1 to 5 are read to seven or more times a week.

- The percentage of children participating in lessons, such as music, dance, language, computers, or religion, went up for 6- to 11-year olds, from 24 percent in 1994 to 33 percent in 2004 .

- From 1994 to 2004, the percentage of children who changed schools went down for 6- to 11-year-olds, from 30 percent to 26 percent. For 12- to 17-year-olds, the percentage of children who changed schools dropped from 52 percent to 42 percent .

- From 1994 to 2004, the number of children 12 to 17 who repeated a grade declined from 16 percent to 11 percent. For children 6 to 11, the rate remained the same at 7 percent.