Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A New Look at Families

The percentage of children living with two parents leaped upwards between 2006 and 2007, rising from 67.4 to 70.7 percent. But this increase was not due to improving relationships between husbands and wives. Instead, for the first time, the Census Bureau is including unmarried couples in the two-parent count. Among the nation's 74 million children under age 18, slightly more than 2 million live with two unmarried parents. These children were formerly categorized as living with only one parent.

Here is the percentage of children living with:

Two married parents, 67.8
Two unmarried parents, 2.9
Mother only, 22.6
Father only, 3.2
No parent, 3.5

Overall, 95 percent of children live with at least one biological parent, 6 percent live with a step-parent, and 2 percent live with an adoptive parent.

Source: Census Bureau, Families and Living Arrangements, 2007

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