The lives of children improved by some measures during recent years, but their opportunities still are constrained by persistent family and neighborhood poverty, says the 2016 Kids Count Data Book.

The annual report by The Annie E. Casey Foundation looks at measures of child well-being at the state and national level in four categories. Broadly, this year’s findings show gains in education and health — but some setbacks in measures of economic well-being and family and community, according to the report.

In recent years, birth rates among teens fell 40 percent, the percentage of children without health insurance dropped from 10 percent to 6 percent, and test scores and graduation rates improved, findings that are promising for the future of children who grew up during the recession and in its wake, according to the report.

But the percentage of children living in poverty remained at 22 percent in 2014, up from 18 percent in 2008 and unchanged since 2013. And the number of children living in high poverty grew from 11 percent from 2006-2010 to 14 percent in 2010-2014, according to the report.

[For more of this story, written by Sarah Barr, go to http://jjie.org/child-well-bei...casey-report/266926/]