(TENNESSEE) How safe are children living in the Volunteer State?  The Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth released their annual 2023 County Profiles in Child Well-Being. The profiles include county-level measures on 52 indicators and county ranks in important areas affecting child development: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. Each profile provides an analysis of the county’s strengths and challenges and policy recommendations to improve outcomes.

Findings from the 2023 profiles include:

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• Statewide 18.4 percent of children were living in poverty in 2021. The lowest percentage was in Williamson County (3.9 percent) and the highest percentage was in Hancock County (42.6 percent).
• Child care cost burden, defined as child care costs for a household with two children as a percent of median household income, is 23.9 percent in Tennessee. The county with the highest child care cost burden is Lake at 40.1 percent and the lowest is Williamson at 11.9 percent.
• Across Tennessee 6.0 percent of children were uninsured in 2020, an increase from 2019. The lowest rate was 4.1 percent in Sullivan County. The highest was in Pickett County, where they experienced an increase from 6.9 percent in 2019 to 10.1 percent in 2020.
• Tennessee’s rate of children who were victims of abuse or neglect was 10.2 per 1,000 in 2021. Clay County had the highest rate at 33.9 and Moore County had the lowest at 0.8 per 1,000.

The counties ranked in the top 10 are Williamson, Wilson, Sumner, Rutherford, Blount, Moore, Weakley, Cheatham, Smith and Decatur. The counties with the greatest opportunities for improvement are Lake, Haywood, Shelby, Hancock, Hardeman, Lauderdale, Madison, Davidson, Campbell and Grainger.