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Infant Abandonment in China

Up to a million orphans are abandoned each year.[i]

In 2007, there were at least 17 million children aged 0-17 that were orphans in China.[ii]

Chinese girls are twice as likely to die in their first year of life as boys.[iii]

The death rate of girls in their first year of life is up to three times higher in rural areas than in urban areas.[iv]

The risk of death is three times higher for second girls than first girls.[v]

Second girls are more than twice as likely to die in their first week after birth as boys.[vi]

95% of abandoned children in rural areas live outside of state-controlled orphanages.[vii]

Fewer than half of China’s orphans receive government subsidies.[viii]

Parents who remarry have been known to abandon their child so they can have a new child with their new spouse.[ix]

In 1995, the Chinese government reported that there were 40,000 orphanages.[x]

In 2009, Americans adopted more orphans from China than in any other country, totaling 3001 adoptions.[xi]

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