US Department of State Releases 2010 Adoption Statistics

The six-page pdf lists intercountry adoptions by country.

http://adoption.state.gov/content/pdf/fy2010_annual_report.pdf

There were 11,059 adoptions in FY2010 down from 12,753 in FY2009, a drop of 13.28%. The children that entered the US on Humanitarian Parole from Haiti are not included in these figures.

The top 10 placing countries are as follows:

China 3401…. up from 3001 in FY2009

Ehtiopia 2513….up from 2227 in FY2009

Russia 1082….down from 1586 in FY2009

South Korea 863….down from 1077 in FY2009

Ukraine 445….down from 610 in FY2009

Taiwan 285….up from 253 in FY2009

India 243….down from 297 in FY2009

Colombia 235….up from 238 in FY2009

Philippines 214….down from 281 in FY2009

Nigeria 189….up from 110 in FY2009

Approximately 41% of the intercountry adoptions are NOT from Hague Convention countries. If Haiti Humanitarian Parole numbers were included, it would have been 46.5%.

While Adoption Service Provider (ASP) fees are listed for Hague Convention countries, this information is not as relevant as you might think. “These fees are exclusive of foreign program fees and fees for travel, translation, care of the child, and other country-specific services, which vary significantly by country of origin.” Half of the top ten sending countries (Ethiopia, Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan and Nigeria) are not included due to not being party to the Hague Convention.

Table 4 lists disruptions as reported by states to HHS. This has to be the most pathetically-lacking table we have ever seen. Not only does this not even scratch the surface in total disruptions and dissolutions in the US, agencies are listed as unknown or not reported.

The only thing this exposes is the joke that collection of disruption information and enforcement of its reporting really is.

Additionally, they bend over backwards in explaining why the table excludes Justin Hansen a.k.a. Artyom Savelyev (who goes by “boy returned by adoptive mother on a plane” in the report.)

“** Note that the widely reported case of the boy returned by his adoptive mother alone on a plane to Russia, his country of origin, is not included in this table. The table reports only disruptions, i.e., cases before the adoption is finalized in which the match does not work out and the child is returned to the care of the country of origin, and dissolutions, i.e., cases in which a full and final adoption is formally dissolved by the responsible court. In this case, there was a final adoption that had not yet been dissolved; hence, this case was not reported.”

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