Joint Center :: DataBank

Living Arrangements of Children

Black Children

Living Arrangements of Black Children

Since 1960, the proportion of black children living with a single parent more than doubled, from 22% to 53.3% in 2000. Since 1980, more black children have lived with a single parent than with two parents (42% versus 45% respectively) in 1980, and since 1983, the majority (at least 53.6%) have lived with a single parent.
The proportion of black children living with two parents declined most sharply in the 1970's, falling more than 25% from 58% in 1970 to 43% in 1979. The percentage living with a single parent increased from 31% to 44% during that same period. * In 1995, the percentage of black children living in two-parent homes reached a historic low of 33%, only half the percentage (67%) in 1960. From 1996 to 2000, this rose to about 37.6% the proportion of black children living with one parent stabilized at about 57% between the years 1996-1999 and then dropped slightly to 53.3% in 2000.
Since 1980, the majority of black children have lived in single-mother households, which currently constitutes 92% of all black single-parent households. Single-father households are the fastest growing type in the total population constituting 16% of all single-parent families but only 8% of those where the father was black.
In 2000, 7.7% of black children lived with relatives rather than a mother or father, and about 1.5% resided with non-relatives. These percentages rose in the late 1970's and in the early 1980's before declining from 1995 to 2000.

White Children

From 1960 to 2000, the proportion of white children living with both parents declined from 90.9% to 75% compared to a decrease from 67% to 37.6% among black children.
The percentage of white children living with a single parent grew from 7.1% in 1960 to 21.6% in 2000, a three-fold increase. The corresponding black figures doubled, from 21.9% to 53.3%. Thus while the growth in the white rate outpaced that in the black rate, the absolute percentage for blacks remained much higher than for whites.
Most white children in single-parent homes lived with their mothers (80%) in 2000. However, the percentage of white children in single-parent families who lived with their fathers increased from 14% in 1960 to 19.9% in 2000. This was more than double the percentage of black children of single parents living with their fathers (8%).
Proportionately fewer white children (2%) than black children (7.7%) live with relatives other than their mother or father. About 1% to 2% of both black and white children resided with non-relatives in 2000.

References

Casper, L. M., Bryson K. Household and Family Characteristics March 1998. United States Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/3/98pubs/p20-515.pdf
Casper, L. M., Bryson K., Co-resident Grandparents and Their Grandchildren: Grandparent Maintained Families. United States Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/population/www/ documentation/twps0026/twps0026.html
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.

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