The new “Kids Count” report on the wellbeing of children ranks Nebraska ninth overall, up from tenth place last year. Laura Speer, spokeswoman for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, says Nebraska is in the top ten in several of the key areas of the study and also led the nation in one category.

Speer says Nebraska has the country’s second-lowest unemployment rate and the state is seeing significant progress in important indicators like economics, education and safety.

Speer says Nebraska has one of the nation’s highest rates of children living in single-parent families. Also, nine-percent of Nebraska children live in high-poverty neighborhoods and more than one in five children live in families where no member of the household has full-time, year-round employment.