Definition: Estimated percentage of children ages 6-17 with and without special health care needs, by weight level (e.g., in 2024, 8.5% of California children with special health care needs were underweight).
Data Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Survey of Children's Health (Nov. 2025).
Footnote: Weight levels are based on body mass index (BMI) percentiles: Children with a BMI between the 5th and 84th percentile are 'normal weight'; children in the 4th percentile and below are 'underweight'; children in the 85th percentile and above are 'overweight or obese.' Due to changes in methodology, these estimates should not be compared with data from earlier years. Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. These estimates are based on a survey of the population and are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. The annotation [!] indicates that the margin of error for the estimate is greater than 5 percentage points but less than 10 percentage points. For more information, see https://www.childhealthdata.org/learn-about-the-nsch/NSCH.
