Single Parent Families

• Between 1980 and 1994, the proportion of all black families that were headed by single parents climbed from 52% to 65%. By 2000, however, this percentage had declined slightly to 63.2%. Among both white and Hispanic families, the percentage maintained by single parents increased between 1980 and 2000, among whites from 17.1% in 1980 to 26% in 2000, and from 25.9% to 35.4% for Hispanics. However, these increases still left the percentage of black families maintained by single parents more than twice the percentage for white families, and 75% higher than that for Hispanics.

• The fraction of single-parent families maintained by men is steadily increasing (see chart 2). Nevertheless, in 2000 the overwhelming majority of black single-parent families (90.1%) were maintained by women, and so were 79.3% of white single-parent families.

• In 2000, 19.2 million children under 18 lived with one parent, including about 58.2% of all black children and 23% of all white children. In 1998, for both black and non-Hispanic white households, the average number of children per household living with single fathers was 2.0. The average number of children in the families of black single mothers (2.5) and white single mothers (2.2) was higher, as was the average number of children in two-parent black (2.6) and white (2.4) families.

Households Maintained by Single Fathers

• Although the majority of single-parent families are maintained by single mothers, the percentage of single-father families grew among all racial and ethnic groups between 1980 and 2000. Nationally, single-father families grew from 393,000 in 1970 to about 2 million in 2000.

• The rise in single-father families has been smaller among blacks than among whites and Hispanics. In 2000, 9.9% of black single-parents families were maintained by fathers, compared to 20.7% and 16.7%, respectively, of white and Hispanic single-parent families. The percentages for both white and Hispanic families doubled between 1980 and 2000, but grew by about 33% for blacks.

• Children who lived with single fathers were more likely to be living with a never-married father (40.6%) than with a divorced father (34.9%) in 2000, a shift from 1998 data which suggested the opposite. In contrast, 35.2% of the children who lived with single mothers had mothers who were never married and 33.6% had mothers who were divorced. In black families, children of single parents were more likely to have lived with mothers (64.8%) and fathers (48.9%) who were never married than with divorced mothers (17.1%) or fathers (21.2%).

References

Casper, L., Bryson, K. Growth in Single Fathers Outpaces Growth in Single Mothers

United States Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/ cb98-228.html
Accesses August 30, 2001

Casper, L.M., and J. Fields. Americas Families and Living Arrangements: Population Characteristics. United States Census Bureau. 2000. http://www.census.gov/prod/ 2001pubs/p20-537.pdf
Accessed August 30, 2001.

Lugaila, Terry. Living Arrangements and Marital Status:March 1998 (Update). United States Census Bureau. Http://www.census.gov/prod/ 99pubs/p20-514.pdf
Accesses August 30, 2001

 

 

Prepared by Cassandra Cantave, and Roderick Harrison for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. August 2001.

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