--- title: Childhood Asthma Rates Might Be on the Decline description: But there's still a big racial discrepancy canonical: https://time.com/4162517/childhood-asthma-rates-decline/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-28T19:45:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:39:49.363Z article:section: Health og:title: Childhood Asthma Rates Might Be on the Decline og:description: But there's still a big racial discrepancy og:url: https://time.com/4162517/childhood-asthma-rates-decline/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Childhood Asthma Rates Might Be on the Decline twitter:description: But there's still a big racial discrepancy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Childhood Asthma Rates Might Be on the Decline by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 28, 2015 7:45 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 28, 2015 7:45 PM UTC After years of dramatic increases in the number of American children suffering from asthma, rates have finally plateaued and in some cases [declined](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/12/28/460845335/childhood-asthma-rates-level-off-but-racial-disparities-remain). According to research based on government surveys and [published in the journal _Pediatrics_](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2015/12/24/peds.2015-2354?sso=1&sso%5Fredirect%5Fcount=1&nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token), the overall rate of asthma in kids aged 17 and younger peaked in 2011 at 9.7% and remained stable until 2013, when it declined to 8.3%. [Certain groups](http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2015/12/28/study-kids-asthma-rates-quiet-down-after-earlier-increase/), like kids under 5 and Midwesterners, saw bigger decreases than others. While the researchers say this is tentatively good news, they pointed out that it’s unclear whether the 2013 number is an anomaly, and they can’t point to a cause, NPR reports. The new figures also represent social disparity: the rates continued to rise for the poorest children, and only 8% of white kids suffer from asthma, compared with 14% of black kids. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4162517/childhood-asthma-rates-decline/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4162517/childhood-asthma-rates-decline/"},"headline":"Childhood Asthma Rates Might Be on the Decline","datePublished":"2015-12-28T19:45:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:39:49.363Z","description":"But there's still a big racial discrepancy","url":"https://time.com/4162517/childhood-asthma-rates-decline/","keywords":["Public Health"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4162517/childhood-asthma-rates-decline/","name":"Childhood Asthma Rates Might Be on the Decline"}}]}] ```