Equity for young people starts from
Early Childhood.
Birth Outcomes
For both babies and parents, birth outcomes are worse for DC’s Black and Latinx residents.
- Nine Black babies died in their first year out of every 1,000 live births in 2024. For white babies, there were too few deaths to report (though in recent years the rate was generally between 2 or 3 deaths per 1,000 live births).
- Between 2014 and 2018, there were 36 parental deaths due to complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. 33 of those who died were Black and one was Latinx.
- Medicaid and the Alliance are important programs for pregnant DC residents. During 2025 (fiscal year), they covered 3,256 pregnant parents at the time of birth in the District, totaling 43% of all births in DC.
First Trimester Prenatal Care by Race in DC (2024)
Race & Equity
Children Under 5 Living in Poverty (2020-2024 estimate)
39%
6,013 children
1%
<100 children
14%
959 children
Healthy Development
Young children could benefit from more access to health supports.
- DC’s population of children under 3 decreased 12% from 27.196 in the 2015-2019 five-year-estimate to 23,916 in the 2020-2024-year estimate.
- In 2024, roughly 1 out of 6 DC children in foster care (92 out of 547) was under 3.
- 67% of the DC residents receiving WIC (Supplemental Nutrition for Women, Infants, and Children) recipients are Black and 32% are Latinx as of 2022 (the most recent data available).Â
- Vaccine coverage of kindergarten students has started increasing after years of decline. The percent of DC public school kindergartners that had been vaccinated for DTAP/DT was 92% in the 2023-24 school year, comparable to the 2012-13 school year but better than the 82% rate in the 2021-22 school year. The percentage of kindergarten students vaccinated for MMR has a similar pattern, also reaching 92% in 2023-24.
- Home visiting is a way of delivering prevention and early intervention services for expecting parents and families of young children. DC home visiting programs impacted more than 3,025 parents and children in 2024.
DC Early Childhood Population Trends
Population by Single Year Estimate
Early Care & Education
Early care and education subsidies reach a fraction of families who need them.
- The District only has enough licensed early care and education seats for roughly half of infants and toddlers. And shortages particularly affect areas with many Black families.
- One hurdle to increasing child care capacity is the low pay that early learning providers receive. Early educators in DC’s community-based organizations earned an average annual salary of only $37,300 as of May 2021. In August 2021 the DC Council voted to increase compensation for early educators. A Mathematica study on the first years of the Pay Equity Fund showed that it significantly increased the number of early educators in the District (see chart to the right).
Race & Equity
Pre-K Public Enrollment (2023-24)
52%
7,592 children
18%
2,570 children
16%
2,253 children
Pre-Kindergarten
DC’s success in expanding pre-K is an example of what’s possible for infants and toddlers
- Enrollment in public pre-K shrank in all sectors in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has now started increasing in all sectors.
- Enrollment of four-year-olds continues to be higher than enrollment of three-year-olds.
Pre-K Enrollment by Site
Find more information about all the demographic measures in our data references section and visit our appendix to download a table with the full DC KIDS COUNT 2026 data set.