(Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
(Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Postal service/Getty Images)

I-in-four parents living with a kid in the United states of america today are single. Driven by declines in spousal relationship overall, equally well as increases in births outside of union, this marks a dramatic alter from a one-half-century agone, when fewer than one-in-ten parents living with their children were unmarried (7%).

At the same time, the profile of single parents has shifted markedly, according to a new Pew Research Center assay of Demography Bureau data.1 Solo mothers – those who are raising at least one child with no spouse or partner in the home – no longer dominate the ranks of unmarried parents as they in one case did. In 1968, 88% of unmarried parents savage into this category. Past 1997 that share had dropped to 68%, and in 2017 the share of unmarried parents who were solo mothers declined to 53%. These declines in solo mothers have been entirely offset by increases in cohabitating parents: Now 35% of all unmarried parents are living with a partner.2 Meanwhile, the share of unmarried parents who are solo fathers has held steady at 12%.

Due primarily to the rising number of cohabiting parents, the share of unmarried parents who are fathers has more than doubled over the past 50 years. Now, 29% of all single parents who reside with their children are fathers, compared with merely 12% in 1968.

While it'south well-established that married parents are typically improve off financially than unmarried parents, at that place are also differences in financial well-being among unmarried parents. For example, a much larger share of solo parents are living in poverty compared with cohabiting parents (27% vs. 16%).3 There are differences in the demographic profiles of each grouping every bit well. Cohabiting parents are younger, less educated and less likely to take ever been married than solo parents. At the aforementioned time, solo parents have fewer children on average than cohabiting parents and are far more likely to exist living with ane of their own parents (23% vs. 4%).

As the number of parents who are unmarried has grown, and then has the number of children living with an single parent. In 1968, 13% of children – nine million in all – were living in this type of arrangement, and by 2017, that share had increased to near ane-third (32%) of U.S. children, or 24 million. However, the share of children who will ever experience life with an unmarried parent is probable considerably college, given how fluid U.S. families have become. One guess suggests that by the time they turn ix, more than 20% of U.S. children born to a married couple and over 50% of those born to a cohabiting couple will have experienced the breakup of their parents, for case. The declining stability of families is linked both to increases in cohabiting relationships, which tend to exist less long-lasting than marriages, equally well as long-term increases in divorce. Indeed, one-half of solo parents in 2017 (52%) had been married at 1 time, and the same is true for about one-third of cohabiting parents (35%).

While it has become more common in recent decades, many Americans view the increment in single parenthood – solo mothering especially – every bit a negative trend for society. In a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, ii-thirds of adults said that more than unmarried women raising children on their own was bad for society, and 48% said the aforementioned about more unmarried couples raising children. Credence of unmarried parenthood tends to be particularly low among whites, college graduates, and Republicans. Even and so, other information suggest a slight uptick in acceptance. In 1994, 35% of adults agreed or strongly agreed that single parents could enhance children as well equally two married parents, according to data from the General Social Survey; by 2012 the share who said as much had risen to 48%.

Declines in matrimony and increases in nonmarital births take driven rise in unmarried parenting

The ascent over the past half-century in the share of all U.Southward. parents who are unmarried and living with a kid younger than xviii has been driven by increases in all types of single parents. In 1968, only 1% of all parents were solo fathers; that figure has risen to three%. At the same time, the share of all parents who are solo mothers has doubled, from 7% up to 13%. Since 1997, the first year for which data on cohabitation are available, the share of parents that are cohabiting has risen from four% to 9%.

All told, more than 16 one thousand thousand U.Southward. parents with no spouse at home are at present living with their kid younger than 18, upwards from 4 million in 1968 and just nether fourteen million in 1997.

The growth in single parenthood overall has been driven by several demographic trends. Perhaps most of import has been the reject in the share of people overall who are married. In 1970, about seven-in-ten U.S. adults ages 18 and older were married; in 2016, that share stood at 50%. Both delays in marriage and long-term increases in divorce have fueled this trend. In 1968, the median age at first marriage for men was 23 and for women it was 21. In 2017, the median age at first marriage was 30 for men and 27 for women. At the same time, marriages are more likely to end in divorce at present than they were most half a century ago.4 For instance, amongst men whose get-go marriage began in the late 1980s, virtually 76% were still in those marriages 10 years later, while this figure was 88% for men whose marriages began in the belatedly 1950s.

Non only are fewer Americans getting married, but it's besides becoming more than common for single people to have babies. In 1970 at that place were 26 births per i,000 unmarried women ages fifteen to 44, while that rate in 2016 stood at 42 births per 1,000 single women. Meanwhile, birthrates for married women have declined, from 121 births per 1,000 down to about xc. As a result, in 2016 four-in-ten births were to women who were either solo mothers or living with a nonmarital partner.

Increases in the number of cohabiting parents raising children have also contributed to the overall growth in single parenthood. In 1997, the first yr for which information on cohabitation are available, 20% of unmarried parents who lived with their children were also living with a partner.5 Since that time, the share has risen to 35%.

This trend has boosted the overall share of unmarried parents who are fathers. In 1968, only 12% were fathers; by 1997 the share had risen to 22%, and in 2017 it stood at 29%. At the same fourth dimension, solo parents remain overwhelmingly female: 81% of solo parents in 2017 were mothers, as were 88% in 1968.

For solo and cohabiting parents, very different demographic profiles

As a event of the rise and transformation of unmarried parenthood in the U.South., significant demographic differences at present exist not merely between married and unmarried parents, but among unmarried parents. And in some cases, even among solo or cohabiting parents, dramatic differences have emerged between fathers and mothers.

Compared with cohabiting parents, solo parents are more than probable to be female and black

Because cohabiting parents are overwhelmingly opposite-sex couples, they are almost evenly split betwixt men and women.6 Among solo parents, nevertheless, the vast majority (81%) are mothers; only 19% are fathers. This gender divergence is even more pronounced amid blackness solo parents: 89% are mothers and just 11% are fathers.

Overall, there are significant differences in the racial and ethnic profiles of solo and cohabiting parents. Amongst solo parents, 42% are white and 28% are blackness, compared with 55% of cohabiting parents who are white and 13% who are blackness.

These gaps are driven largely by racial differences amongst the large share of solo parents who are mothers. Solo moms are more than than twice as probable to be blackness as cohabiting moms (30% vs. 12%), and roughly four times every bit likely as married moms (7% of whom are black). Iv-in-ten solo mothers are white, compared with 58% of cohabiting moms and 61% of married moms.

There are virtually no racial and indigenous differences in the profiles of solo and cohabiting fathers. Nearly half of each group are white, roughly 15% are blackness, about one-fourth are Hispanic and a small-scale share are Asian. Married fathers, however, are more likely than unmarried fathers to exist white (61% are) and less probable to be blackness (8%).

Only iii% of solo or cohabiting parents are Asian, compared with 9% of married parents. A similar pattern emerges amongst both Asian fathers and mothers.

Amongst all parents, Hispanics are about as represented across all three family types – solo, cohabiting and married parents – with no big differences among Hispanic mothers and Hispanic fathers.

Solo parents are older, more educated and more likely to have been married than cohabiting parents

Cohabiting parents are younger on boilerplate than solo or married parents. Their median age is 34 years, compared with 38 among solo parents and 40 among married parents.

Cohabiting parents have lower levels of educational attainment than other parents, due at least in role to their relative youth. Merely over half (54%) of cohabiting parents take a high school diploma or less education, compared with 45% of solo parents and 31% of married parents. At the other end of the spectrum, fifteen% of cohabiting parents accept at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 20% of solo parents. Married parents, in contrast, are more than than twice as likely as single parents to have a bachelor's degree (43% exercise), reflecting the growing gap in spousal relationship across educational levels.

Cohabiting fathers, in particular, have lower levels of teaching than their solo counterparts. Roughly half-dozen-in-ten cohabiting fathers (61%) – versus 51% of solo fathers – have a loftier school diploma or less education. Conversely, just 12% of cohabiting fathers have a bachelor'south degree, while 21% of solo fathers practise. In that location are no large educational differences in the profile of solo and cohabiting mothers.

The relative youthfulness of cohabiting parents also contributes to the high share (65%) that have never married, meaning that well-nigh children with cohabiting parents were born outside of marriage. In contrast, nearly half (48%) of solo parents have never been married.

Cohabiting mothers and fathers are near every bit likely to take never married. Amidst solo parents, however, mothers are more probable than fathers to have never been married (51% of solo mothers vs. 36% of solo fathers), suggesting that solo mothers and solo fathers may take somewhat unlike paths to unmarried parenthood.

Three-in-ten solo mothers are living in poverty

Despite the fact that cohabiting parents are younger and less educated than solo parents, they are however far less likely to be poor. All told, xvi% of unmarried parents living with a partner are living below the poverty line, while about one-fourth (27%) of solo parents are. In comparison, just 8% of married parents are living in poverty.7

Amidst solo parents, mothers are almost twice as likely equally fathers to be living below the poverty line (30% vs. 17%), but poverty rates for cohabiting parents don't differ amidst mothers and fathers.

Solo and cohabiting parents are about equally likely to be employed (72% and 73%, respectively). However, a majority (53%) of cohabiting parents are in a dual-earner household, which accounts for some of the differences in poverty levels between the two groups.

Roughly one-in-four solo parents are living with their own parent

Non only do solo and cohabiting parents differ in terms of their demographic and economic profiles, simply their household situations are different likewise. Solo parents don't have a partner at habitation, simply they are far more likely than their married and cohabiting counterparts to exist living with at least one of their ain parents – 23% do. This is especially common among solo dads, 31% of whom are residing with at least ane of their parents. Among solo moms, this figure stands at 22%. In comparison, but 4% of cohabiting parents are living with at least i of their ain or their partner'due south parents – the same share as among their married counterparts.

While the role of these grandparents cannot be determined for sure from this information, prior Pew Research Centre analyses of 2011 Census Agency data suggest that many could be playing an of import role as caregiver to any grandchildren in the household. In fact, a 2013 analysis found that among all grandparents who lived with at least one grandchild at the time (whether the child's parent was present or not), about four-in-ten (39%) said they were responsible for almost of that grandchild's basic needs.

Cohabiting parents have more children, on average, than solo parents practise. Just over half (53%) of cohabiting parents have more than i child at home, compared with 44% of solo parents. Among solo parents, though, moms are more likely than dads to have multiple kids at home – almost half (46%) do, while 35% of solo fathers are raising more than one child.

Cohabiting parents are also more than likely than their solo counterparts to take immature children at abode. This is linked to the fact that they themselves tend to be younger. Fully 60% of cohabiting parents are living with at to the lowest degree one child younger than vi, compared with 37% of solo parents and 44% of married parents. Among solo parents, mothers are much more likely than fathers to have a preschool-historic period kid in the house. About four-in-ten (39%) do, compared with 26% of dads.

Public views of single parenthood

Equally single parenthood has grown more than common in the U.Due south., the public has become somewhat more accepting of it, though big shares say that this trend is bad for society.

A 2015 Pew Research Middle survey found that the trends toward more unmarried women having children and more single couples raising children were seen as relatively more harmful to society, compared with other changes in American families.8

Americans were far more probable to limited a negative view regarding the rise of single mothers than whatever other tendency: Ii-thirds (66%) said that more unmarried women having children was bad for gild, and just iv% said this tendency was good for society (the remaining 29% said the trend doesn't make much difference). At the same fourth dimension, about half (48%) said more single couples raising children was bad for society, while only 6% said it was good for society and 45% said it didn't brand much difference.

By comparison, other family trends were seen as less negative, though substantial shares saw some of those trends as bad for society. For case, four-in-ten adults said that the growing number of children who take parents who are gay or lesbian was bad for society, and a similar share (39%) said the same about more than couples living together without being married. When it came to more mothers of young children working outside the dwelling house, 36% said this was a bad thing, but a sizable minority (22%) saw information technology equally a good affair. Relatively few Americans (eleven%) said the trends toward more children with parents of unlike races and more interracial marriages were bad for society; at to the lowest degree twice as many viewed each of these trends as good for society (22% and 29%, respectively). In each instance, majorities or pluralities of the public said these trends didn't make much of a difference for society.

Views on unmarried parents vary widely by party affiliation. The overwhelming majority (83%) of Republicans and independents who lean to the Republican Party said that more single women having children without a partner is bad for guild; 56% of Democrats and those who lean Autonomous said the same. Partisan differences were even wider on attitudes well-nigh unmarried parents raising children together: While 70% of Republicans saw this equally bad for society, about one-half as many Democrats (32%) said the same.

Older Americans and those with college levels of teaching were specially probable to view these trends as bad for society.

There were racial and ethnic gaps too, peculiarly on views virtually unmarried couples raising children: 53% of whites viewed more unmarried couples raising children as a bad matter, compared with 37% of blacks and 32% of Hispanics.

Other data suggest there has been some softening in views towards unmarried parenthood. In 2012, 48% of adults agreed or strongly agreed that single parents could raise children equally well as two parents can, according to the Full general Social Survey. This marked a slight increment from 1994, when just 35% said equally much. At the same fourth dimension, the share of people who disagreed or strongly disagreed that single parents could raise children as well equally two parents ticked downward, from 48% to 41%.

Almost the information

This report is based primarily on data from the U.S. Census Agency's March Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS), also known every bit the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). The survey produces a nationally representative sample of the non-institutionalized U.S. population. The analysis in this report starts with 1968, the first year for which ASEC data are publicly bachelor.

Because the CPS is based on households, just parents who are living with at to the lowest degree one of their children younger than 18 are included in this analysis. Prior Pew Research Eye analysis indicates that 17% of fathers of children younger than eighteen are living apart from all of these children, and fathers living apart from their children have different characteristics than those who alive with their children.

The CPS does not explicitly enquire well-nigh custody arrangements, but whatever parent whose kid lives with them about of the time is counted as "living with" that kid. In cases where custody is carve up l-50, the parent is counted as "living with" their kid if the child is present at the fourth dimension of the interview.

Throughout this report, "fathers," "mothers" and "parents" refer to people who are living with their child younger than 18 years, and to people who are their spouses or partners. These include both biological parents and parents who are not biologically linked to the children in their family.

The Current Population Survey (CPS) does not explicitly ask nearly custody arrangements, just any parent whose child lives with them most of the time is counted every bit "living with" that child. In cases where custody is separate l-50, the parent is counted as "living with" their kid if the child is nowadays at the time of the interview.

All cohabiting parents – meaning parents who are living with a partner to whom they are not married – are identified in analyses since 2007. From 1995 to 2006, the CPS but nerveless information on cohabitation among unmarried household heads, so merely those respondents and their partners are counted equally cohabiting. This leads to an undercount of cohabiting parents for those years. The size of this undercount prior to 2007 tin't exist adamant, but in 2007 the vast majority (93%) of all cohabiting parents were either the head of household or the partner of the head. Prior to 1995, cohabiting couples were not identified in the CPS.

All aforementioned-sex couples, regardless of their marital status, are classified as "cohabiting," since that is the convention used in the CPS. For more on same-sexual practice parents, see "LGB Families and Relationships: Analyses of the 2013 National Health Interview Survey."

The minor share of parents who are married but not living with a spouse or partner are classified equally "solo parents," along with those who are neither married nor living with a partner.

"Some college" includes those with an associate degree and those who attended higher merely did not obtain a degree. "High school" includes those who take a loftier school diploma or its equivalent, such as a General Education Development (GED) certificate.

Whites, blacks and Asians include merely single-race non-Hispanics. Hispanics are of any race. Asians include Pacific Islanders.