How Common Is Adoption?

One of the things I've been struck by since we began this process is how many people we already know who have been involved in adoptions. I can think of exactly one person I knew in grade school who was adopted, and two more in college. Three individuals out of the entire set of people I've ever met is a really small proportion. Granted, I would've assumed that there were more people I didn't know about, but I never thought it would be a large part of the general population.

In the past few weeks and months, I've been amazed at how many notes we've received from family and friends about the role adoption has played in their lives. Most have been just quick messages of support, but even that's been enough; it astounded me to find out just how many people I actually know who were adopted, have adopted, or have placed children for adoption.

It occurred to me that I didn't know how common adoption was in the US, statistically speaking. Wikipedia to the rescue! According to their page on adoption, the ratio of adoptions to live births in the US is approximately 3 to 100. So around 3 of every 100 people are adopted... wow! When you factor in not just adoptees but also their adoptive and birth families, that's a lot of people who are connected to adoption. It's certainly a lot more than I would have ever guessed.

I know that we won't be making a "traditional" family, and I'm sure that there will be many unique challenges. But it's heartening to know that our future child will be in some very good company as an adoptee!