(Missourinet) – The 2015 Kids Count report ranks Missouri higher this year in child well-being compared to last year, though it still comes in the middle of the field.

Laura Speer with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which conducts the report, said the state came in 26th.

“Missouri improved,” Speer said. “It’s actually one of the biggest improvements across the country it’s actually gone up three places from 29th in 2014.”

Speer said it’s hard to say if the change is more due to improvements in Missouri or declines in other states. The report also says Missouri had more children living below the poverty line in 2013 than in the recession year of 2008.

“During the period of economic recovery many children and families got left behind and there’s still a long way to go,” she said.

About 100-thousand Missouri children lacked health insurance in 2013 according to this year’s report.

“At the national level there’s been pretty substantial improvement in providing health insurance to kids over the last five years and so I think that’s something that’s worth paying attention to,” Speer said.

She adds that there are fewer people who have access to employer-sponsored health insurance today than ten years ago.