Adoption Statistics Canada

In the last ten years, only 27 children from Canada have been adopted by United States citizens, according to the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs. The Bureau reports information between the 1999 and 2010 fiscal years. Of these 27 children, 14 are male and 13 are female. One was under a year old at the time of adoption, nine were between the ages of one and two years old, three adoptees were between the ages of three and four, twelve were between the ages of five and 12, and two were between the ages of 13 and 17.

No adoptions occurred in 2010, but three were finalized in 2009. In fact, it's probably more common for a Canadian adopters to adopt American children than the other way around. According to the Adoption Council of Canada and the Inter-country Adoption Services report, in 2003, 74 American children were adopted by Canadians. That same year, only one Canadian male was adopted by an American.

The reason the numbers seem so low is directly due to the ratio of of adoptable children to potential adopters. According to reports, there are thousands of prospective adoptive couples in Canada but only a little over a thousand children actually available. Although it's rare for a Canadian child to be placed with an American family, it's not impossible. However, the changing adoption regulations within each Canadian province will certainly keep things complicated.