Child Trends has cobbled together statistics on this year’s graduating high school seniors and painted a portrait that it believes is fairly accurate in its depiction of these youth. Some of the statistics are alarming.
Out of 100 members of the average high school graduating class, about:
• 71 have experienced physical assault;
• 68 are headed to college;
• 64 have had sexual intercourse;
• 35 volunteered during the previous year;
• 22 are living in poverty
• 34 are overweight, 18 of whom are obese;
• 12 have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder;
• 10 report being raped; and
• 24 were binge-drinking in the past two weeks
To create this portrait, the authors examined available data for U.S. high school seniors (or similarly-aged youth) that were nationally representative and as close in time to 2013 as available.
