America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007

Family Structure and Children's Living Arrangements

Children's family structure is associated with the economic, parental, and community resources available to children and their well-being.

Indicator FAM1.A: Percentage of children ages 0–17 by presence of married parents in the household, 1980–2006

• In 2006, 67 percent of children ages 0–17 lived with two married parents, down from 77 percent in 1980.
• In 2006, nearly one quarter (23 percent) of children lived with only their mothers, 5 percent lived with only their fathers, and 5 percent lived with neither of their parents.^{1, 2}
• In 2006, 76 percent of White, non-Hispanic, 66 percent of Hispanic, and 35 percent of Black children lived with two married parents.³
• The proportion of Hispanic children living with two married parents decreased from 75 percent in 1980 to 66 percent in 2006.
• The proportion of all children living with a single father increased from 2 percent in 1980 to 5 percent in 2006.

While most children spend the majority of their childhood living with two parents, some children have other living arrangements. Information about the presence of parents and other adults in the family, such as the parent's unmarried partner, grandparents, and other relatives, is important for understanding children's social, economic, and developmental well-being.

Indicator FAM1.B: Percentage of children ages 0–17 living in various family arrangements, 2004

• FAM1.B provides more detailed data about children's living arrangements, using information about the coresident parents for each child, as well as the detailed type of relationship between parent and child—biological, step, or adoptive. In 2004, there were about 73 million children ages 0–17. Seventy percent of them lived with two parents, 26 percent lived with one parent, and about 4 percent lived in households without parents.
• Among children living with two parents, 90 percent lived with both biological or adoptive parents and 10 percent lived with a biological or adoptive parent and a stepparent. About 75 percent of children living with at least one stepparent lived with their biological mother and stepfather.
• About 4 percent of children who lived with both biological or adoptive parents had parents who were not married.
• The majority of children living with one parent lived with their single mother. Some single parents had cohabiting partners. Sixteen percent of children living with single fathers and 10 percent of children living with single mothers also lived with their parent's cohabiting partner. Out of all children ages 0–17, 4.2 million (6 percent) lived with a parent or parents who were cohabiting.
• Among the 2.9 million children (4 percent) not living with either parent in 2004, 56 percent (1.6 million) lived with grandparents, 19 percent lived with other relatives, and 25 percent lived with nonrelatives. Of children in nonrelatives' homes, 42 percent (308,000) lived with foster parents.
• Older children were less likely to live with two parents-64 percent of children ages 15–17 lived with two parents, compared with 68 percent of children ages 6–14 and 75 percent of those ages 0–5. Among children living with two parents, older children were more likely than younger children to live with a stepparent and less likely than younger children to live with cohabiting parents.

 FAM1A HTML Table, FAM1B HTML Table

 FAM1A Excel Table, FAM1B Excel Table