ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the remarkable changes in the number of intercountry adoptions (ICAs) in the first decade of the new millennium. In the 50 years following the initiation of transracial intercountry adoption from Korea in 1953, global numbers of children moving for ICA had steadily increased to an estimated total worldwide of over 45,000 a year in 2004 (Selman, 2006). At that stage there seemed to be an assumption that growth would continue, and the number of applicants in receiving states continued to rise. However, the last six years have witnessed a reversal of growth, and by 2009 global estimates were lower than in 1998 (Table 1.1).
