Excerpt from preface:

Under the [Early Childhood Development] Agreement, governments have committed to report regularly to Canadians on outcome indicators of young children's well-being. Governments have identified a common set of 11 indicators of well-being which will provide valuable information on the physical health and early development of young children in Canada.

This document is the Government of Canada's fulfillment of the commitment to report on the well-being of Canada's young children. This report expands upon the common set of 11 indicators to provide a portrait of children from birth to five years of age in Canada, including information on physical health, safety and security, and early development. In addition, this report provides an overview of the families in which young Canadian children are growing up. The data presented in this report are for 1998-1999, establishing a baseline against which the indicators can be tracked in the future.