The federal government's annual report on the health and well-being of American children and teenagers shows they are less likely to die before they reach adulthood, less likely to go hungry and less likely to get pregnant during their teen years than any time in recent years.

The "America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2000" report was complied from a number of sources by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.

The report shows the death rate for children from ages one to four dropped by almost half from 1980 and 1998, and the death rate for children five to 14 dropped by one-third.

The leading cause of death for children in these age ranges was primarily injuries from automobile crashes. These numbers can be further decreased because more than two-thirds of children aged one to 14 who died in motor vehicle crashes in 1997 were either not in car seats or not wearing safety belts, the report states.

The death rates for adolescent older than 14 also has dropped, but not by the same degree. The leading causes of death for teens are auto-related injuries and firearms.

America's teen pregnancy rate dropped to the lowest level since the government began keeping records. The birth rate in 1998 was 30 births per 1000 girls ages 15 to 17, down from 39 births per 1,000 girls in 1991.

The poverty rate for households with children also have dropped from 22 percent in 1993 to 18 percent in 1998.

However, the child poverty rate has not dropped below 1980 levels -- even though the country has enjoyed its longest economic boom in history, one official of the Children's Defense Fund told the Washington Post.

"To have the 1980 child poverty rate in a time of record, sustained prosperity has to be viewed as a failure. We should not be bragging about that," Susanne Martinez, CDF's senior vice president for policy, told the newspaper.

While other areas of child health and well-being showed improvement, the report also revealed significant gaps based on income and race, the Post reports.

And while these numbers are getting better, America -- the world's wealthiest nation -- trails well behind other Western nations and even a number of developing countries in terms of some childcare issues.

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