PERCENT OF FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN HEADED BY A SINGLE PARENT

This indicator measures the trend of children living in single parent households throughout the United States. The percentage measures indicates what proportion of all households in the United States have “own” children in a single parent households, as opposed to other types of households.  The indicator does not make a distinction as to whether the parent present in the household is male or female.    A small exception to the above definition is the case of children residing in families where either parent is absent because of active military service.  These cases are excluded from the sample.

Since the early 1990s, an increasing amount of attention has been given to the rising percentage of American children who grow up in single parent households.  This attention was driven by the perception that children who grow up in single parent households are more likely to drop out of school, have kids while they are young, and remain outside of the labor force, and the perceived reality that America’s social fabric was unwinding as traditional family norms were rapidly disappearing.  KIDS COUNT data indicates that the percent of children residing in single parent households has not changed drastically since 1990, and has been stable since 1995.

The indicator is based on a 12-month average of data available monthly through the Current Population Survey, which is available form the US Census Bureau.  

Figure 1: Percent of Families with Children Headed by Single Parents: 1998