The U.S. State Department has issued its Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption for the year ending September 30, 2018.

Once again, the total number of incoming intercountry adoptions declined, with a total of 4,059 for the year. The report notes that this figure was influenced by the continuing decrease in the number of children made available for intercountry adoption in China, and a new ban on intercountry adoption in Ethiopia. There were increases in adoptions into the U.S. from Colombia and India, however. The largest numbers of children were adopted from China (1,475), India (302), Ukraine (248), Colombia (229) and South Korea (206). There were a total of 81 outgoing intercountry adoptions from the United States reported, with children heading primarily to Canada (38) and the Netherlands (20), and coming primarily from Florida (38) and New Jersey (17).

Beyond the statistics, the 2018 report discussed issues that have undermined confidence in the U.S. intercountry adoption process, including missing post-placement and post-adoption reports, reports of unregulated custody transfers, and "hosting programs" sometimes used to identify potential adoptive families for older children.