New report shows Mississippi made progress in education but challenges remain in other child well-being metrics

• Mis­sis­sip­pi now ranks 16th nation­al­ly in education, according to the latest KIDS COUNT Data Book. Yet, the Magnolia State ranks 50th over­all when factoring in economic well-being, health, and family and community.

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion released its 2026 KIDS COUNT^® Data Book on Monday, offering a new scor­ing sys­tem the organization said reveals a more nuanced pic­ture of child well-being than rank­ings alone.

This 37th edi­tion of the KIDS COUNT Data Book intro­duces a new way to mea­sure child well-being that shows not only how states com­pare with one anoth­er, but whether they are mak­ing mean­ing­ful progress for chil­dren over time.

The Data Book assigned every state a score from 0 to 1,000 based on 16 indi­ca­tors across four domains of child well-being: Eco­nom­ic Well-Being, Edu­ca­tion, Health and Fam­i­ly and Com­mu­ni­ty.

The scores are based on the lat­est avail­able child well-being data, large­ly from 2024. The base­line the organization used was from 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic dis­rupt­ed chil­dren’s lives, allowing states to track whether out­comes have improved or declined over time.

Using the new scoring system, New Hamp­shire, Mass­a­chu­setts and Utah earned the high­est over­all scores, while Louisiana, New Mex­i­co and Mis­sis­sip­pi scored low­est.

Over­all, child well-being declined in 29 states, improved in 15 states and remained sta­ble in six states.

The Data Book shows that in its education rankings, 47 states expe­ri­enc­ed set­backs since 2019. Only Louisiana and Mis­sis­sip­pi improved edu­ca­tion scores dur­ing that period.

While Mis­sis­sip­pi ranks 50th over­all across all four domains scored, the Magnolia State made notable gains in edu­ca­tion, improv­ing by 17 points. The Data Book notes that invest­ments in lit­er­a­cy, teacher train­ing, ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion and the state’s Lit­er­a­cy-Based Pro­mo­tion Act have con­tributed to stronger aca­d­e­m­ic out­comes. 

Mis­sis­sip­pi now ranks 16th nation­al­ly in education despite an uptick in children aged 3 and 4 not being in school and an increase in the number of 8th graders not proficient in math.

As for health and economic challenges, Mississippi ranked 50th and 49th, respectively.

The Data Book shows that Mississippi has improved in the areas of children in poverty and those who parents lack secure employment. However, children living in households with a high housing cost burdened worsened.

Mississippi’s childhood health indicators tracked in the report saw increases in low birth weight infants, children and teen deaths per 100,000, and children and teens who are overweight or obese.

The report showed that 26 states saw declines in health outcomes since 2019 and 10 moving in a positive
direction. Maine and Mississippi had the sharpest drops, while Virginia, Indiana and New Jersey had the largest improvements.

Under the family and community category, Mississippi ranked 49th, although the state improved in every category used to formulate the scoring, which included children in single-parent homes, children in families where the head of household lacks a high school diploma, children living in high poverty areas, and teen births per 1,000.

To read the full Data Book click here, or for the Mississippi rankings, see below.