Adoption Statistics by Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.

White children are the largest single racial group adopted in the United States, but children of color collectively make up roughly half of all adoptions from the public foster care system, and the picture shifts sharply depending on whether the adoption goes through foster care, a private agency, or an international placement. The most reliable national numbers on race and ethnicity come from the federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), which tracks every child in foster care and every adoption involving a public child welfare agency.¹ Those numbers show consistent racial disparities from the moment a child enters care through the moment a family is finalized.

Children in Foster Care With an Adoption Goal

On September 30, 2023, 77,809 children in foster care had adoption as their permanency goal. The racial and ethnic breakdown:

White: 41% (32,144 children)
Hispanic, any race: 23% (17,678)
Black or African American: 22% (17,268)
Two or more races: 10% (7,459)
American Indian or Alaska Native: 2% (1,687)

The remaining children identified as Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or had undetermined race data.² A subset of this group had already had parental rights terminated and was legally free for placement.

Which Groups Are Overrepresented

The shares above only make sense against the general child population. Black children are about 14% of all U.S. children but 22% of those with an adoption goal in foster care. Research has found that Black children are roughly twice as likely as White children to spend time in foster care, and the gap persists after controlling for the actual likelihood of maltreatment.

American Indian and Alaska Native children show a similar pattern: about 1% of U.S. children, but 2% of those waiting to be adopted. Congress recognized this dynamic decades ago when it passed the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Finalized Adoptions From Foster Care

In FY 2023, 50,193 children exited foster care through finalized adoption.² The racial makeup of completed adoptions runs Whiter than the waiting population. Federal Children’s Bureau data shows White children accounting for a larger share of finalized adoptions than of children still waiting, while Black children account for a smaller share of finalizations than of those still waiting.³ Hispanic children are adopted at roughly the rate you would expect from their share of the waiting group.

That gap compounds. Children who wait longer are more likely to age out of care without any permanent family. The average age at finalized adoption from foster care has hovered around six years old in recent years, and children who wait longer tend to be older when finally placed.

Transracial Adoption

Between 2017 and 2019, about 28% of foster care adoptions were transracial, up from 23% a decade earlier.⁴ Across all adoption types, a national survey of adoptive parents put the transracial share at roughly 40% of families, climbing to 84% for international adoptions and dropping to about 21% for private domestic placements.

White parents dominate transracial placements. Among transracial foster care adoptions, White parents accounted for about 90% of adoptive families. Black children made up 21% and Hispanic children 35% of all transracially adopted children from foster care during that period.⁵ Among non-White children adopted from foster care, roughly half were placed with parents of a different race.⁴

International Adoption

International adoptions to the U.S. have collapsed since their 2004 peak, falling 94% by 2023.⁶ In FY 2024, just 1,172 children were adopted from abroad. The top sending countries were India (202), Colombia (200), Bulgaria (79), Taiwan (74), and South Korea (52).⁷

Country of origin drives the racial composition of international adoptees. Since 1999, China alone has accounted for 29% of all international adoptions to the U.S., followed by Russia (16%), Guatemala (10%), South Korea (8%), and Ethiopia (6%).⁶ Census data has shown that about half of internationally adopted children under 18 were born in Asia and roughly one-fifth in Latin America. Because U.S. adoptive parents are predominantly White, international adoptions are overwhelmingly transracial.

Private Domestic Adoption

Private domestic adoptions, usually of newborns, are harder to track because they happen outside the public child welfare system and reporting is inconsistent. The available data indicates these placements skew toward White infants more heavily than foster care adoptions do. They also cost far more: agency-facilitated infant adoptions generally run $25,000 to $60,000, and independent adoptions handled through attorneys fall between $35,000 and $50,000. Those figures shape who adopts privately and, indirectly, which children move through which pathway.

What Federal Law Allows Agencies to Consider

Federal law bars using race, color, or national origin to delay or deny an adoption or foster care placement. The Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996, which amended the original Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994, make it illegal for any agency receiving federal child welfare funding to deny a prospective parent the chance to adopt based on race, or to delay a child’s placement for the same reason.⁸ A violation is treated as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At the same time, states must actively recruit foster and adoptive families that reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the children waiting for homes.⁹

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is the major exception. For an Indian child, federal law sets a preference order:

First, a member of the child’s extended family
Second, other members of the child’s tribe
Third, other Indian families

A court can deviate only for good cause, and tribes can set their own order of preference that the court must follow so long as the placement meets the child’s needs.¹⁰ The U.S. Supreme Court upheld ICWA in Haaland v. Brackeen in June 2023, and the law remains fully in effect for any child who is a member of, or eligible for membership in, a federally recognized tribe.

How Cost Shapes the Numbers

Foster care adoptions carry minimal fees for adopting families because the federal Title IV-E Adoption Assistance Program provides monthly subsidies and one-time payments for eligible children, particularly those with special needs or circumstances that would otherwise make them harder to place.¹¹ Many states also waive court filing fees and home study costs for foster care adoptions.

The federal adoption tax credit applies to all adoption types. For adoptions finalized in 2026, the maximum credit is $17,670 per child. It phases out for families with modified adjusted gross income above $265,080 and disappears above $305,080. Beginning with tax year 2025, a portion of the credit became refundable, which helps families who owe little federal income tax.

Adoptive parents who go through foster care tend to have lower household incomes than those who adopt privately or internationally, which reflects the absence of the large upfront costs the other pathways require. That financial accessibility is a large part of why foster care remains the primary pathway for families of color to adopt, and it is why the racial dynamics inside the foster care system shape the national numbers so heavily.

1
Administration for Children & Families. About AFCARS
2
Administration for Children and Families. Preliminary Estimates for FY 2023 as of May 1, 2025
3
Administration for Children & Families. Child Welfare Outcomes Data – Adopted
4
ASPE HHS. Transracial Adoption from Foster Care in the U.S.
5
ASPE HHS. The Multiethnic Placement Act 25 Years Later: Trends in Adoption and Foster Care
6
Pew Research Center. International Adoptions to the U.S. Have Slowed to a Trickle, Matching Trends in Other Countries
7
U.S. Department of State. Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1996b – Interethnic Adoption
9
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Ensuring the Best Interests of Children Through Compliance With The Multiethnic Placement Act
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 25 U.S. Code 1915 – Placement of Indian Children
11
Administration for Children & Families. Title IV-E Adoption Assistance