Table of contents
- Key adoption statistics at a glance
- What FY 2024 says about intercountry adoption
- Country patterns in incoming adoptions
- State patterns inside the United States
- Timing and completion days by country
- Fee ranges and cost benchmarks
- What the numbers suggest for families and professionals
Key adoption statistics at a glance
Intercountry adoption data from the U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption shows a system with a large incoming flow, a much smaller outgoing flow, and wide variation in timing and cost.
Fast facts
- 1,172 U.S. FY 2024 intercountry adoptions involved immigration to the United States (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- 1,008 incoming cases were finalized abroad, while 164 were to be finalized in the United States (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Outgoing intercountry adoptions from the United States totaled 18 cases in FY 2024 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Adoption service providers reported 6 disrupted Convention placements in FY 2024 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- The Department reported 0 temporary or permanent debarments in FY 2024 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
Why that matters The numbers show a process that is still active, still expensive, and still highly uneven by country, by state, and by the time needed to complete a case. For anyone researching adoption statistics, the strongest takeaway is that a single annual total hides a lot of variation beneath it.
What FY 2024 says about intercountry adoption
The biggest headline is the difference between incoming and outgoing cases. Incoming intercountry adoptions linked to immigration to the United States reached 1,172, while outgoing intercountry adoptions linked to emigration from the United States totaled just 18 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
That gap matters because it shows the center of gravity in the dataset. The adoption statistics are not symmetrical. They are dominated by cases in which children are brought into the United States, not by cases in which children leave the country through intercountry adoption.
Another useful split is between finalization locations:
- 1,008 incoming cases were finalized abroad.
- 164 incoming cases were to be finalized in the United States.
That means the majority of incoming cases were already completed overseas before the child entered the United States (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption). The remaining cases were still in process and needed domestic finalization steps.
A few operational indicators help frame how the system was functioning in FY 2024:
- 6 disrupted Convention placements were reported by adoption service providers.
- 0 debarments were reported by the Department.
Those two figures are not a full measure of risk or compliance, but they do provide a narrow administrative snapshot. The disruption count shows that not every placement moved to completion, while the debarment count shows no temporary or permanent debarments were reported in the year covered by the dataset (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
Country patterns in incoming adoptions
The country table in the dataset is useful because it shows how concentrated incoming adoption activity can be. Several countries account for noticeably larger counts, while many others sit in the low single digits.
| Country | Incoming adoptions in FY 2024 | Average days to completion |
|---|---|---|
| India | 202 | Not listed in dataset |
| Colombia | 200 | 493 |
| Bulgaria | 79 | 424 |
| New York | 79 | Not a country; see state table |
| Taiwan | 74 | Not listed in dataset |
| Korea (ROK) | 52 | Not listed in dataset |
| Haiti | 51 | 795 |
| Thailand | 31 | Not listed in dataset |
| Mexico | 25 | Not listed in dataset |
| China | 24 | 1,669 |
A few things stand out immediately from this comparison table:
- India and Colombia lead the list with 202 and 200 incoming adoptions respectively (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- The next tier drops off sharply. Bulgaria follows at 79, then Taiwan at 74, then Korea (ROK) at 52 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Several countries appear in the dataset with much smaller totals, including Albania (1), Algeria (3), Vietnam (9), Bangladesh (10), Brazil (21), China (24), and Mexico (25) (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
Notable country counts
Some country-level counts deserve separate attention because they sit at distinctive points in the distribution:
- China: 24 incoming adoptions (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Brazil: 21 incoming adoptions (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Philippines: 39 incoming adoptions (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Nigeria: 44 incoming adoptions (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Haiti: 51 incoming adoptions (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Thailand: 31 incoming adoptions (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Vietnam: 9 incoming adoptions (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
The country counts alone do not describe the full process, but they do show where adoption activity is most concentrated in the supplied dataset.
State patterns inside the United States
The state distribution adds another layer of detail. It shows where incoming intercountry adoptions were associated within the United States in FY 2024.
| State | Incoming intercountry adoptions in FY 2024 |
|---|---|
| Texas | 114 |
| California | 119 |
| New York | 79 |
| Illinois | 56 |
| Indiana | 56 |
| Florida | 54 |
| North Carolina | 52 |
| Colorado | 49 |
| Georgia | 49 |
| Pennsylvania | 59 |
A few patterns are clear from these state figures:
- California (119) and Texas (114) are the two largest state totals in the dataset (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- New York (79) sits in a second tier, followed by Pennsylvania (59), Illinois (56), Indiana (56), Florida (54), and North Carolina (52) (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Colorado (49) and Georgia (49) match exactly, which is a useful reminder that state totals can cluster closely around the middle of the distribution.
The state data is especially helpful because it grounds the broader adoption statistics in a domestic geography. Even though the subject is intercountry adoption, the U.S. state of association still varies meaningfully from one case to another.
Outgoing adoption cases by U.S. state of emigration
The outgoing table is much smaller, but it still reveals a few concrete points:
- 3 cases from India were linked to Georgia as the U.S. state of emigration (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- 2 cases from Canada were linked to California and Arizona as the U.S. states of emigration (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- 1 case from Sweden was linked to American Samoa as the state of emigration (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
These outgoing counts are very small relative to the incoming totals, but they help illustrate that the dataset tracks both directions of movement.
Timing and completion days by country
The completion-time data is one of the most revealing parts of the dataset because it shows how much adoption timelines can vary by country.
Big number: China averaged 1,669 days to completion in FY 2024, the longest figure listed in the supplied statistics (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
That figure stands out sharply against countries with much shorter average times:
- Costa Rica: 200 days
- Brazil: 305 days
- Ecuador: 369 days
- Canada: 386 days
- Georgia: 394 days
- Dominican Republic: 415 days
- Bulgaria: 424 days
- Honduras: 436 days
- Armenia: 448 days
- Colombia: 493 days
The middle of the dataset still spans a wide range. Some countries that are not at the top or bottom still have substantial completion times:
- Albania: 539 days
- Denmark: 595 days
- El Salvador: 699 days
- Belize: 712 days
- Haiti: 795 days
- Azerbaijan: 901 days
- Burundi: 1,070 days
- Ghana: 1,161 days
- Burkina Faso: 1,372 days
Shortest and longest examples
A practical way to read the timing data is to separate the shortest and longest values in the list.
Shortest listed average completion times
- Costa Rica: 200 days
- Brazil: 305 days
- Ecuador: 369 days
- Canada: 386 days
- Georgia: 394 days
Longest listed average completion times
- China: 1,669 days
- Burkina Faso: 1,372 days
- Ghana: 1,161 days
- Burundi: 1,070 days
- Azerbaijan: 901 days
This spread is large enough to matter operationally. Even without adding outside context, the numbers show that adoption timing is not uniform. A case associated with one country can move through the process much faster or much slower than a case associated with another country.
What the timing spread suggests
The supplied data does not explain why some countries have longer completion times, but it does show that the range is substantial. In practical terms, that means the adoption process can vary from roughly 200 days on the low end to well over 1,600 days on the high end (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
For readers comparing adoption statistics, that spread is one of the strongest signals in the dataset. It tells you that averages by country are not just cosmetic. They are one of the clearest indicators of how much the process can differ from case to case.
Fee ranges and cost benchmarks
The fee data is equally useful because it puts a price range around adoption services and separates service-provider charges from accrediting-entity fees.
At a glance
- ASP fees for adoption services from Convention countries ranged from $17,500 to $62,263 in FY 2024 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Half of ASPs charged less than $41,795, and half charged more (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- ASP country-specific service fees ranged from $3,750 to $34,450 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Accrediting entity fees per adoptive family were estimated at $916 to $2,098 per adoption (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- Those accrediting entity fees represented 2.2% to 5.0% of the median cost of adoption services from Convention countries (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
The fee data gives you two different ways to think about cost:
-
Service-provider cost range
- The broad ASP range from $17,500 to $62,263 shows how wide the market can be for Convention-country services.
- The median split at $41,795 suggests a midpoint benchmark that is useful when comparing providers (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
-
Accrediting-entity cost range
- The accrediting entity estimate of $916 to $2,098 per adoptive family is much smaller in absolute terms.
- But the percentage share, 2.2% to 5.0% of median service costs, shows it still adds a measurable layer to the total expense (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
Fee comparisons that stand out
A few comparisons help put the pricing data into context:
- The high end of the ASP fee range is more than 3.5 times the low end, based on $62,263 versus $17,500 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- The country-specific service fee range from $3,750 to $34,450 is also wide enough to matter for budgeting (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
- The accrediting-entity fee range is smaller, but it is still part of the total cost stack families have to understand.
That combination of wide service-fee variation and smaller but nontrivial oversight fees is one of the clearest cost findings in the dataset.
What the numbers suggest for families and professionals
The adoption statistics in this dataset point to three practical themes.
1. The system is active, but concentrated. Incoming intercountry adoption cases outnumber outgoing cases by a huge margin: 1,172 versus 18 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption). The top countries and states account for a lot of the activity, while many others sit at much lower levels.
2. Timelines are highly uneven. The completion-time spread is broad, from 200 days for Costa Rica to 1,669 days for China (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption). That means timing expectations need to be country-specific, not generic.
3. Cost planning has to account for multiple layers. ASP fees, country-specific service fees, and accrediting entity fees all appear in the dataset, and each layer has its own range. The most useful budgeting benchmark in the supplied data is the ASP median of $41,795, but the full range still stretches from $17,500 to $62,263 (U.S. Department of State FY 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption).
For readers using adoption statistics to compare countries, states, or fee structures, the most important habit is to look beyond the headline total. The more useful story is in the breakdowns: where cases are concentrated, which places move faster, and how much the process can cost at different points.