Youth Mortality Rates

State Takeaways

Across California, Black and Native youth had the highest mortality rates in 2019. Both Black and Native youth are twice as likely to die between ages 1-24 compared to white youth.

Sources:

Poverty Rates

Poverty Rates

In 2019 almost half (48%) of boys of color ages 5-17 lived in poverty. Black and Latino boys experience the highest levels of household poverty, compared to white children.

Unemployment Rates

Unemployment Rates

In 2019, 14% of young men ages 16-24 were unemployed across California. Black (26%) and Native American boys (23%) faced the highest unemployment rates compared to other groups.

Degree Completion Rates

Degree Completion Rates

Only a quarter (25%) of men of color held a bachelor’s degree or higher in California in 2019. White men, by comparison, are almost twice as likely (44%) to have a college education or higher.

High School Graduation Rates

High School Graduation Rates

Eight-in-ten (81%) high school boys in California graduated in time in 2020. But across the state, Black and Indigenous boys are most-often failed by school systems and have lower graduation rates than white and Asian students.

College Readiness Rates

College Readiness Rates

Statewide, less than half (47%) of high school boys of color graduate high school meeting the entry requirements for the UC/CSU systems.

Youth Mortality Rates

Youth Mortality Rates

Across California, Black and Native youth had the highest mortality rates in 2019. Both Black and Native youth are twice as likely to die between ages 1-24 compared to white youth.

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Related Resources

The Youth mortality rate shows the per-capita death rate for boys and young men in California from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Underlying Cause of Death data accessed from the WONDER database. This database aggregates all deaths from death certificates submitted to the CDC. Data are presented as a crude-death rate calculated by taking the total number of deaths by a specific population and multiplying it by 100,000 to standardize the data.

This indicator uses the bridged-race dataset, which imputes people identifying with more than one race into a single-race category (for more details, see CDC race and ethnicity notes). Latinos are of any race. For cases where Latino origin was not stated in a death certificate, ethnicity is coded as “not stated” in the original data. These cases may thus be missing from individual categories, but they are counted in the ‘all’ category. 

Cases with less than 20 people are not reported due to statistical unreliability. For more details, see the CDC’s data documentation

Please see here for additional notes on the BMoC Dashboard and its methodology.