Where the Boys and Girls Are: States with most children ages 5 to 17

The federal government's Digest of Education Statistics 2013 says that in 2012, the United States had 53,729,000 boys and girls of traditional K-12 school age—5 to 17 years old. That amounts to a little more than 17 percent of the overall U.S. population.

The list of the 10 states with the most school-age children coincides with the list of the 10 most populous states. However, the percentage of 5- to 17-year-olds in those states ranges from 15.2 percent in Florida to 19.4 percent in Texas.