History

2021

December 2021

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Visit https://www.census.gov/history every month for the latest Census History Home Page!

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U.S. Census Bureau History: The United Nations Children's Fund

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) celebrates its 75th anniversary on December 11, 2021.
Established in 1946, UNICEF provided relief to children in need immediately following the end of
World War II.

Since becoming a permanent organization within the United Nations in 1953, UNICEF has helped
hundreds of millions of children in 190 countries through its vaccination programs, food relief,
educational programs, safe drinking water assistance, and numerous other activities that benefit
children in need.

Image courtesy of the United Nations.

For 75 years, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has assisted children in more than 190 countries, including the United States. Since 1946, the vital education, medical, and infrastructure programs UNICEF provides have positively impacted hundreds of millions of children every year.

UNICEF grew out of the League of Nations International Children's Emergency Fund created by the United Nations Rehabilitation Administration on December 11, 1946, to help women and children in areas ravaged by World War II. The United Nations extended UNICEF's mission in 1950 to assist women and children in the developing world. By 1953, it had become a permanent organization with dedicated funding under the updated United Nations Children's Fund name and older "UNICEF" acronym.

Today, UNICEF provides assistance to hundreds of millions of children in need in more than 190 countries—including the United States—every year. In developing countries, UNICEF projects and funding play a critical role in providing education, completing sanitation and clean water projects, offering medical assistance and vaccinations, and putting an end to human trafficking. In the United States, UNICEF's focus has generally been to educate future leaders through a variety of internship, education, and fundraising programs. For example, many American children participate in one of UNICEF's most popular stateside fundraising programs—Trick of Treat for UNICEF—which has collected more than $180 million in in UNICEF collection boxes carried by trick-or-treaters (and more recently via online danations) each Halloween since 1950.

At times of extreme need, including the recovery efforts after Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, and Maria, UNICEF provided emergency relief assistance to children and families in the United States and its territories. However, UNICEF is generally able to focus efforts on children outside of the United States because Americans in need are fortunate to be served by a number of stateside organizations helping to fight hunger and homelessness, provide medical assistance, and assist with a variety of education and rehabilitation programs. Data from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series found that these organizations included 185,071 religious organizations (NAICS 813110), 12,139 grantmaking foundations (NAICS 813211), 4,417 voluntary health organizations (NAICS 813212), 3,653 human rights organizations (NAICS 813311), and 25,743 civic and social organizations (NAICS 813410) in the United States in 2019.

As the winter holidays approach, many households in the United States make a special effort to help those in need through donations to church, school, or work-sponsored benefits, including the federal government's Combined Federal Campaign. In 2020, federal employees donated $83.6 million to charities in the United States, including the National Indian Health Board, which works to improve American Indian and Alaska Native health and access to care; St. Jude Children's Research Hospitals, which treat children with ancer and life-threatening diseases; and the United Way, which provides Washingtonians job training and sponsors the DC Central Kitchen in the fight fight to end hunger in the nation's capital.

You can learn more about Americans in need and areas of our nation that can benefit from assistance to improve the lives and welfare of children using data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau's censuses and surveys. For example:

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) Program, 16.8 percent of children under age 18 in the United States lived in poverty in 2019. Counties with the highest rates of children living in poverty were Ziebach County, SD (63.4 percent); Humphreys County, MS (55.3 percent); Madison Parish, LA (54.1 percent); Corson County, SD 52.8 percent); and Quitman County, MS (51.8 percent). Douglas County, CO (2.4 percent), Los Alamos, NM (3.2 percent), and Loudon County, VA (3.2 percent) had the lowest percentage of children under age 18 living in poverty in 2019.
• In 2008, American Community Survey data showed that 12 percent or more of the population in 29 states did not have health insurance, led by Texas (23.4 percent); Utah and New Mexico (20.7 percent); and Florida (20.2 percent). By 2018, the number of states with 12 percent or more of their populations reporting they were uninsured dropped to six: Texas (17.7 percent), Oklahoma (14.2 percent), Georgia (13.7 percent), Florida (13 percent), Alaska (12.6 percent), and Mississippi (12.1 percent).
• Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement data showed that 8.6 percent of Americans—approximately 28 million—did not have health insurance at any point during 2020. That same year, more than 113.3 million were insured by public health insurance plans, like Medicare (59.8 million), Medicaid (57.9 million), and VA or the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) (3 million).
• American Community Survey data shows that Mississippi and Louisiana had the highest total percentage of people living in poverty in 2019, with 19.6 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Of Mississippi's population that was under age 18, 28.1 percent lived in poverty. In Louisiana, 27 percent lived in poverty. New Hampshire (7.1 percent) and Utah (9.9 percent) had the lowest percentage of their populations living in poverty under age of 18 according to the American Community Survey.
• According to the 2020 Census, 22.1 percent (73,106,000) of the population of the United States was under the age of 18 on April 1, 2020. Utah (29 percent), Idaho (25.2 percent), and Texas (25 percent), had the largest percentage of their populations under the age of 18, while the District of Columbia (16.6 percent), Vermont (18.4 percent), and Maine (18.5 percent), had the smallest percentage in 2020.
• In 2018, American Community Survey (ACS) data found that 53,882,000 students attended kindergarten through 12th grade. Of these students, 51,479,000 were native-born and 2,403,000 foreign-born; 48,183,000 attended public schools, while 5,699,000 attended private schools. Educational attainment is a key indicator determining the likelihood of someone living below the poverty level. In 2019, ACS showed that 25,618,541 people 25 years and over did not have a high school diploma. An estimated 23.4 percent of this population lived below the poverty level. The poverty rate is 13.1 percent for high school graduates (including equivalency); 9.1 percent for people with some college or an associate degree; and 4.1 percent for people with a bachelor's degree or higher.
• School enrollment rates have increased significantly since 1955. Among 5- and 6-year-olds, kindergarten enrollment has risen from 78 percent in 1955 to 94 percent in 2018. Similarly, the number of 16- and 17-year-olds enrolled in high school has risen from 77 percent in 1955 to 92 percent in 2018. These increasing rates of Kindergarten–12th grade enrollment directly relate to the increasing number of students enrolled in American colleges and universities. Between 1955 and 2018, the number of students enrolled in college rose from 2.4 million to 18.9 million.
• Total contributions to UNICEF in 2020 were more than $7 billion in 2020, with the largest donors being the United States ($801 million), Germany ($744 million), and the European Union ($514 million). These funds helped millions of children around the world through UNICEF-sponsored initiatives, including: delivery of 30.5 million live births; vaccination of 66.3 million children against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis; protecting 2.9 million girls against cervical cancer through the administration of the HPV vaccine; providing services to prevent malnutrition in 244 million children under the age 5; providing safe drinking water to 17 million people, and access to basic sanitation services to 13.4 million people; and providing distance learning opportunities to 301 million children.
• Did you know that Americans are giving more to charitable organizations than ever before? On June 15, 2021, Fortune Magazine reported that Americans donated a record $471 billion to charity in 2020—a 5.1 percent increase from 2019!
• In addition to working for the U.S. Census Bureau as enumerators, supervisors, tabulation clerks, and accountants, many agency employees were dedicated to serving their communities through their charitable work, including Eartha M.M. White who worked to educate the poor in the segregated south; Gertrude E. Rush who advocated for underprivileged girls; Mary Jane Van Holland Baker who improved access to medical care and education for women and children; and Jose Miguel Talavera-Toso III who gave his time to assist homeless and disabled veterans. Learn more about these and many other talented and generous Census Bureau employees at our Notable Alumni Web pages.

Representatives from 50 nations drafted the United Nations charter in San Francisco, CA, on April 25, 1945. The charter was adopted on June 25, and it became operational on October 24, 1945.
Established to replace the League of Nations, the United Nations today has nearly 200 member or observer states who meet regularly to promote peace, discuss security and human rights issues, and oversee
economic and humanitarian assistance programs—like the United Nations Children's Fund.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.

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Did you know?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt first used the term "United Nations" 2 weeks after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, HI, in December 1941.

Roosevelt referred to the "United Nations" strategy for the Allied Powers to defeat Germany, Italy, and Japan during the Arcadia Conference held in Washington, DC, between Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The "Declaration by United Nations" drafted at this meeting became the basis for the United Nation's Charter signed on June 26, 1945.

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United Nations

With the end of World War II in sight, 850 delegates from 50 nations began meeting in San Francisco, CA, on April 25, 1945, for the United Nations Conference on International Organization.

Attendance at the conference was a "Who's Who" of international diplomacy and included U.S. Secretary of State Edward Stettinius; future British Prime Minister Anthony Eden; soon-to-be Premier of the Republic of China Soong Tse-vung; and Minister of Foreign Affairs (and former Premier of the Soviet Union) Vyacheslav Molotov.

Delegates unanimously adopted the United Nation's Charter on June 26, 1945. President Harry S. Truman (above left) attended the ceremony as Secretary of State Stettinius' (seated) signed the charter for the United States.

Following ratification by the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States) and the majority of signatory nations, the United Nations officially began operating on October 24, 1945—known as United Nations Day since 1947.

Today, the scope of the United Nations goes beyond ensuring world peace.

Headquartered in New York, NY, the organization's 193 members and 2 observer states play critical roles in international peacekeeping, protection of human rights, and providing economic development and humanitarian assistance through specialized agencies, like the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.

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For the Record

Children around the world know the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The iconic holiday character featured in books, music, television, and movies has led Santa Claus' sleigh since 1939.

Robert L. May published Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as a holiday promotion to draw shoppers into Montgomery Ward department stores during the 1939 holiday shopping season. The promotion was so popular that in 1939 alone, the department store gave away more than 2.4 million copies of the book.

In 1948, Max Fleischer directed an 8-minute animated short film based on May's story as part of Montgomery Ward's holiday advertising. That same year, Johnny Marks wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which quickly rose to the top of the American pop music charts for cowboy-crooner Gene Autry.

In 1964, Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass produced a stop-motion animated television special based on Robert May's story. With narration by American singer and actor Burl Ives, the program is still "must watch television" when it airs during the winter holidays.

Today, the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is as much a part of holiday folklore as Clement Clark Moore's poem A Visit From St. Nicholas, Dr. Seuss' "Grinch," and the Ebeneezer Scrooge character from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Thanks to the imagination of Robert May, children around the world sleep easier knowing that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is guiding Santa's sleigh.

Photo used with permission of the Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth University.

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Visit https://www.census.gov/history every month for the latest Census History Home Page!