UES Kids Face Lowest Risk To Well-Being: Study

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Children who are born and raised on the Upper East Side face fewer obstacles to living a healthy life, according to a study released this month by the Citizens' Committee for Children.

The Upper East Side was one of eight New York City neighborhoods to be labeled "lowest risk" by the Citizens' Committee for Children's annual study on the risks to childhood well-being in each of the city's neighborhoods. The neighborhood was ranked the 56th "riskiest" neighborhood out of the 59 studied by the nonprofit dedicated to child advocacy.

The study — which analyzes kids' obstacles to being healthy, housed, educated, safe and economically self-sufficient — is meant to reveal where resources should be pooled to help children in need, researchers said.

To calculate risk, the Citizens' Committee for Children analyzes 18 different "indicators" of well-being at the community level. Some of these indicators include a neighborhood's childhood poverty rate, rental overcrowding, the number of children in homeless shelters, infant mortality rates, high school graduation rates and youth unemployment.

"This does not mean one community is inherently better or worse, or that these obstacles cannot be overcome," the report reads. "However, the 18 indicators on their own and together as an index help identify where such factors cluster, enabling individuals, organizations, and government to take informed action through program development, budget decisions, and legislation to address social determinants of health and to reduce the likelihood of adverse childhood experiences."

The Upper East Side scored high marks in the Citizens' Committee for Children's analysis of educational and family and community indicators. In both categories, the study ranked the neighborhood as having the least amount of risk.

Children on the Upper East Side have access to early education with an 84.8% enrollment rate. Older children also perform well in schools, with high English and Math state exam pass rates and a 77% graduation rate.

Indicators that test support for children from their families and communities were also impressive for the Upper East Side. Only 2% of children raised on the Upper East Side grow up in a household with no high-school degree, only 13% grow up in a single-parent home and the violent felony rate in the community is one of the lowest in the city, according to the study.

Check out the full Citizens' Committee for Children study here.