A Better Chicago Releases State of Our Youth 2025 Report

CHICAGO (4/3/25) – Today, A Better Chicago released State of Our Youth 2025, a report examining the challenges and barriers young people face across the city, as well as the interventions and investments driving positive change. The report was unveiled at an event on April 2 that featured data, policy, education, and community program experts. The report is available to view here.

To create the report, A Better Chicago analyzed trends from the organization’s 2024 citywide youth survey and focus groups, as well as the Youth Opportunity Dashboard (YOD), which pulls data from publicly available sources to track youth outcomes across Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. The report paints a comprehensive picture and shares trends on topics including poverty rates, chronic absenteeism, violence, reading and math proficiency, and more.

Specifically, the report highlights seven key insights:

1. One in four Chicago youth under the age of 18 live in poverty. For Chicago’s youngest residents (ages 0-5), that figure is 43.5% and as high as 90% in some communities.  
2. 94% of youth survey respondents cite mental health as a problem experienced by people their age, and youth have become more critical over time of their community’s response to providing mental health services.  
3. Community violence is an all-too-familiar part of life in Chicago, with nearly two thirds of youth witnessing violence in some form, according to our citywide survey. Nearly 25% of youth report witnessing violence weekly.  
4. In 2024, almost 41% of CPS students were chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism is strongly correlated to lower academic performance and is a key indicator of future educational and economic challenges.
5. Eighth grade reading proficiency is a bright spot in the data and has increased by nearly 50% since 2019, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Despite gains in recent years, 3^rd grade reading and 8^th grade math proficiency rates remain below pre-pandemic levels.   
6. In 2024, CPS’s five-year high school graduation rate hit a historic high and in 2023, college enrollment rates were the highest since 2017. However, Black male youth represent the group with the greatest potential for improvement in both areas.   
7. Chicago youth rely on community-based programs. Those involved in out-of-school programs feel more optimistic and are more likely to aspire to a four-year college degree. Young people want greater access to these opportunities. 

Additionally, the report includes a set of actionable recommendations for resource allocation, partnership opportunities, and targeted investments in high-need Chicago communities. These recommendations focus on investments in food and housing security, expanded availability to trauma-informed mental health services, tactical solutions to address chronic absenteeism, and increased access to community-based programs.

Notably, the report also highlights that the vast majority of the city’s youth surveyed by A Better Chicago (95%) are optimistic about their future, nearly all intend to graduate high school, and most plan to continue their education. This optimism and resilience reinforces the need to invest more deeply in the potential of every young person in Chicago.

“Today, we are proud to release the State of Our Youth 2025 report, which shines a light on the realities facing young people across Chicago. This report is a call to action — one that highlights both the challenges youth endure and the investments that are moving the needle,” said A Better Chicago’s CEO Beth Swanson. “Focusing on holistic solutions that support our youth begins with understanding their lived experiences and deploying data-driven investments to communities that need it most. By investing in organizations that are tackling issues including mental health, community violence, chronic absenteeism, and education outcomes, we can empower young people to thrive and build brighter futures.”

A Better Chicago, . The organization’s Youth Opportunity Dashboard was designed to support decision-making among city leaders, policymakers, philanthropists and youth advocates. The tool tracks indicators measuring youth milestones from cradle-to-career and allows data to be overlaid across the city’s school board districts, an important feature as Chicago moves to a fully-elected school board system.

Founded in 2010, A Better Chicago strives to build a more equitable city by breaking the cycle of generational poverty. As of 2025, the organization has reached over 135,000 students and deployed over $83 million to Chicago’s most promising youth-serving nonprofits.

To learn more about A Better Chicago, visit https://www.abetterchicago.org/

About A Better Chicago

A Better Chicago is a venture philanthropy that invests in the most promising nonprofits providing opportunities for children experiencing poverty. We’re a supercharger. We have provided more than $83 million in unrestricted funding and management support to help the nonprofits in our portfolio grow. Our donors want to make pivotal, well-researched investments that lift the outlook for our city.

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