Nevada near bottom of list of good places to raise kids

Mark Preston

Tuesday, July 28, 1998 | 10:51 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Silver State is not the best place to raise children, according to a new report released Tuesday by a national children's advocacy group.

The Washington-based Children's Rights Council (CRC) released a report ranking Nevada 44th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia as a desirable state for children to live.

Boasting the nation's highest divorce rate and one of the highest death rates for children due to alcohol and drugs were the main reasons why CRC placed Nevada only seven slots away from being the worst place for children to live.

A high teen-age pregnancy rate and a high number of births to unwed mothers also contributed to the Silver State's dismal rating.

"Nevada needs to do a lot more to move up from the bottom of the heap," said David L. Levy, president of the CRC. "Whether that means spending more money on children, establishing more programs and outreach efforts, there needs to be more of a focus on children."

Levy said his group ranked each state and the district after evaluating 11 categories, using sources such as the FBI, the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics and the Census Bureau. Nevada also ranked 37th in 1997 and 32nd in 1996.

However, some positive news can be gleaned from the report. Nevada ranked eighth in the nation for having the lowest infant mortality rate and fifth for having the lowest number of children living in poverty.

"The purpose of these ratings is to encourage friendly competition between states to make it better for children to live in Nevada," Levy said. "Children don't have a lobby, they don't have money. But this report speaks for them."

The report found that Iowa is the best place for children to live, and that Washington, D.C., is the worst. Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nebraska and Massachusetts rounded out the top five best states for children to grow up in, while Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona and New Mexico, respectively, were the worst.