Youth Indicators 1996 / Children of Single Parents

Indicator 11. Family Formation

Percent of own children under 18 years old living in single-parent families, by race/ethnicity of family householder: 1965 to 1994

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-20, Household and Family Characteristics, various years; and Marital Status and Living Arrangements, nos. 433, 445, 450.

The proportion of children living in single-parent families increased sharply during the 1970s and continued to rise slowly through the early 1990s. In 1994, 25 percent of children lived in single-parent families; 11 percent did so in 1970. In 1994, 59 percent of black children lived in single-parent homes compared with 19 percent of white children and 29 percent of Hispanic children.