This report presents international statistics on the status of children and families, and thus updates a 1988 fact sheet containing international comparisons of public policies promoting the well-being of children and families. Included in the report are data on basic demographic trends, family composition and marital dissolution, the economic status of children, health, education, labor force participation, and family formation. The report indicates that children in the United States are frequently at greater risk than children in other developed countries for social, economic, and health problems. The greatest disparities are in the number of children affected by divorce, youth homicide, child poverty rates, infant mortality, and teenage pregnancy. In some instances, such as births to unmarried women, demographic and social changes in other western countries over the last two decades closely parallel those in the U.S. Some conditions of U.S. children, such as youth suicide and unemployment rates, are similar or less troublesome than conditions in other industrialized countries. The text is followed by a glossary. A total of 147 references are cited. An appendix provides 31 tables which offer international comparisons of various demographic categories. (RH)