Visit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and there is this banner on every page.
They are quick to point out most children are recovered quickly along with a complete list of accomplishments throughout the years.
Missing Children. An estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year – that is more than 2,000 children every day. Of that number, 200,000 are taken by family members, and 58,000 are the victims of non-family abductions. The vast majority are recovered quickly. However, each year more than 110 children are the victims of the most serious abductions.
Unfortunately runaways seem to be glossed over though they represent the largest category of missing children per the NISMART II study.
In 1999, an estimated 1,682,900 youth had a runaway/
thrownaway episode. Of these youth, 37 percent were
missing from their caretakers and 21 percent were
reported to authorities for purposes of locating them.
Of the total runaway/thrownaway youth, an estimated
1,190,900 (71 percent) could have been endangered during
their runaway/thrownaway episode by virtue of
factors such as substance dependency, use of hard
drugs, sexual or physical abuse, presence in a place
where criminal activity was occurring, or extremely
young age (13 years old or younger).
Some of the Endangered Missing runaways who will be not be attending any celebrations are:
