Data Sources on NC Children and Families

Home Data Sources on NC Children and Families

Data matters. When considering focus, priorities and strategies, communities need good, disaggregated data to inform their decision-making. The links below contain data and information on children and families, which can help your collaborative have a data-driven discussion that inform impactful decisions.

Overall Child and Family Well-being

  • The Pathways Measures of Success Framework shares more than 60 data measures that matter for moving the needle on third grade reading outcomes. 
  • NC Early Childhood Action Plan Data Dashboards – Data on each of the ten goals of the NC Early Childhood Action Plan, to track progress toward the targets and sub-targets of the 2025 goals.
  • Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center – Statistics on children, youth and families in North Carolina from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and NC Child
  • County Data Cards (2025) – NC Child’s county data cards provide local snapshots of child well-being by county in five areas of children’s well-being: A Strong Start, Family Economic Security, Nurturing Homes and Communities, Health and Wellness, and High-Quality Education
  • Diversity Data Kids – Indicators by race and ethnicity are available by county, metropolitan area and for large cities and school districts. Includes population, population change, household types, public school enrollment, school segregation and poverty among the 105 possible indicators.

Child Health and Development

  • Child Health Report Cards – These report cards, published biannually by the NC Institute of Medicine and NC Child, tracks key indicators of child health and well-being in the areas of healthy births, access to care, secure homes and neighborhoods, and health risk factors.
  • County Health Rankings and Roadmaps – Information by county on health outcomes, including length and quality, health behaviors (e.g., obesity and smoking), access to care, social and economic factors and physical environment.
  • National Survey of Children’s Health – State-specific data on children’s physical and mental health, access to quality health care, and family, neighborhood, school, and social contexts.
  • NCIOM’s Where to Find NC Health Data – The NC Institute of Medicine has put together this webpage of NC health data resources, including on overall wellbeing, maternal and infant health, adult and child health, health insurance and access to care, vital statistics, infant mortality and child deaths, mental health and substance use, environmental health, and social drivers of health.

Early Care and Learning

  • Child Care Data Center – State-specific data on the affordability, accessibility, and quality of child care.
  • Early Learning in the US: 2017-2021 – Fact sheets by state that provide a historical, but recent look, at the state of early learning programs in the US.
  • Home Visiting – Information about home visiting programs and data on number of children served with federal home visiting funds.
  • NC Early Childhood Education Data Repository and Factsheets – NC data by county on child care, number of children receiving child care subsidy, use of child care, number of child care programs for each star rating and more.
  • NC Early Childhood Education Workforce Studies – NC data on teachers, assistant teachers and directors in early care and education centers and family child care, and on the licensed early care and education programs where they work.
  • NC Pre-K Outcomes Data – The NC Pre-K Program Evaluation Project at the FPG Child Development Institute has served as the external evaluator for the NC Pre-K Program since its inception during 2001-2002 (as More at Four)
  • Smart Start PBIS – Population-level data by county on early care and education and health. Contact a Smart Start Local Partnership for a copy of their report.
  • State of Preschool Yearbooks – State-specific data on NC Pre-K.

K-12 Education

  • BEST NC’s Education Facts and Figures – NC statewide preschool, K-12 and higher education data on students, teachers, schools, financing and achievement.
  • Civil Rights Data – NC data by school on a variety of civil rights in education topics including suspensions/expulsions, retentions, access to pre-K and IDEA, teacher experience and absenteeism, and more.
  • Free and Reduced Lunch – NC data by school of free and reduced lunch applications.
  • The Nation’s Report Card: National Assessment of Educational Progress – State-specific NAEP performance data for math, reading, writing and science for grades 4-8.
  • NC School Report Cards – Data on student performance for each school in every North Carolina school district are released publicly and are available online.
  • Student/School Performance – Student performance data by subgroup, including the number of students at or above grade level (Level III), the number of valid scores, and the percent at or above Level III on end-of-grade (EOG).
  • NCECF’s Data Dashboard: EQUITY FOCUSED Third Grade Reading Proficiency – Three education equity data dashboards that explore early literacy disparities across North Carolina, filtered at state, district, and school level
  • NCECF’s Advancing Kindergarten Through Third-Grade Educational Equity in North Carolina – Interactive figures to view trends and comparison data on children’s reading skills.
  • NCECF’s A New Perspective on Chronic Absenteeism: Highlighting the Good News Hidden Inside – Explore interactive graphs to see chronic absenteeism rates for individual schools.

Family Supports

 

Updated July 2026