Intended to inform policymaking in the public and private sector, this booklet compiles secondary data for 53 health status indicators and service needs of America's children. The book provides both a graphic and textual summary for the data and addresses long-term trends, where applicable. Some statistics indicate the extent of progress toward "Healthy People 2000" goals or a reduction in the prevalence of unhealthy behaviors, while others reveal escalating health problems. Following the introduction, which discusses trends and issues in children's health, the booklet has six sections: (1) "Population Characteristics," including children in poverty, working mothers, child care, and school dropouts; (2) "Health Status," discussing the health issues related to infants, children, and adolescents; (3) "Health Services and Utilization," including health care financing, vaccination coverage levels, physician visits, service utilization by children with chronic conditions, postpartum hospital discharge, and prenatal care; (4) "State-Specific Data," including tables of state-level data on infant, perinatal, and neonatal mortality, prenatal care, low birth weight, births to women under 18, Medicaid information, and health care financing; (5) "City Data," focusing on comparisons between cities with populations over 100,000 and national data on infant mortality, low birth weight, and prenatal care; and (6) Progress Towards Healthy People 2000 Objectives," summarizing progress toward several objectives. Contains approximately 50 references. (KB)