The variables used to compare statistics include regional variations, gender, age, ethnicity, and offense type. On any given day, there are up to 100,000 juveniles in custody; of the 11,000 different facilities that might hold juveniles, only 30 percent are specifically designed for youthful offenders, while the remainder are adult jails, police lockups, and State correctional institutions. The findings reported here show that the highest rate of juveniles in custody is in the Western U.S., while the South has the highest rate of juveniles in adult facilities. One-day counts of youths in juvenile facilities indicate that minority youths have higher rates of confinement than whites, and males higher rates than females. Females are more likely to be confined for status offenses and as non- offenders. Between 1977 and 1987, declining juvenile admissions to public facilities were counterbalanced by a large increase in admissions to private juvenile correctional facilities; the data also suggest that length of stay increased during that period. Currently available data provide little insight into key policy questions regarding length of confinement, recidivism rates, and costs of various juvenile correctional alternatives. The report examines data collected through national juvenile court statistics and the National Survey of Youth in Custody. It recommends upgrading national data on youths in custody by improving sampling strategies, data collection techniques, and future data analysis procedures. 16 tables, 6 figures, and 2 appendixes