The Foundation for Child Development (FCD) has historically been at the forefront of efforts to better understand American children’s quality of life. FCD’s work in the 1970s initiated the now widespread use of social indicators to measure child well-being at the federal and state levels.
In 2004, the Foundation released the first Child Well-Being Index (CWI) – a measure that combines separate sources of national data about American children into one scientifically-based, easily understood summary. This summary both reflects the overall well-being of children in the U.S. and measures how trends in specific areas of well-being have changed each year since 1975.