15,030 Young People Aged Out of U.S. Foster Care in FY 2025

The Annual Reality. In federal fiscal year 2025, 15,030 young people left foster care in the United States the way no one hopes they will: as legal adults, without a permanent family.

That's fewer than the 20,789 in FY 2015, but it is still about one in every eleven children who left care.

What happens next

The best evidence on what happens to young people who age out comes from Chapin Hall's Midwest Study, which followed youth aging out in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois into their mid-twenties. Using that data, researchers found that between 31% and 46% had been homeless at least once by age 26.

That's one study, from three states, of young people who aged out more than a decade ago. It's not a national count, and we don't present it as one. But it's the clearest look we have at what aging out can mean, and why it matters so much.

The fix is people

Extended foster care, housing help and college support all matter. The thing that matters most is a permanent adult: an adoptive family, a guardian, a relative, a mentor who stays.

• In Texas, 772 youth aged out in FY 2025, the fewest in a decade.
• In Louisiana, 209 aged out in SFY 2025, up from 127 two years earlier.

When we talk about foster care data, we're not talking about numbers. We're talking about children who deserve to be seen, counted and fought for.