WASHINGTON, January 25 (RIA Novosti) – The number of children adopted from abroad continued to decline in the United States last year, reaching its lowest level for years, according to a recent State Department report.

American parents adopted 8,668 children from other countries in the 2012 fiscal year, compared to 9,320 in 2011, the State Department report showed.

This number is likely to keep on dropping in the wake of Russia’s ban on adoptions for US citizens enacted on January 1. Russia is the 3rd most popular country for US families looking to adopt abroad, after China and Ethiopia.

Last year Americans adopted some 748 children from Russia, 2,589 from China and 1,568 from Ethiopia, the report, published on Thursday, said. Americans adopted just 962 Russian children in 2011 compared to 1,079 in 2010. Foreign adoptions peaked in 2004, when 22,884 children were brought into the US, but since then this number has been in steady decline.