Status and Trends in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives: 2008

NCES 2008-084
September 2008

1.5. Family Structure

About 51 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native families with children were headed by married couples in 2006. This percentage was smaller than those of White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander families having this arrangement but larger than the percentage of Black families.

Figure 1.5. Percentage distribution of families with children, by race/ethnicity and family status: 2006

NOTE: A family is a group of two or more people who reside together and who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Race categories include persons of Hispanic ethnicity.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, American Fact Finder, American Community Survey, 2006.

In 2006, about 51 percent of American Indian/ Alaska Native families with children,¹ including those of Hispanic ethnicity, were headed by married couples, 38 percent were headed by females with no spouse present, and 11 percent were headed by males with no spouse present. The percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native families living in married-couple households was greater than the percentage of Black families doing so (37 percent), but less than the percentages of White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander families doing so (73 percent, 63 percent, and 82 percent, respectively).

The percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native families headed by females with no spouse present (38 percent) was three times as high as the percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander families arranged this way (12 percent). A lower percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native families than Black families, however, were living in this situation (38 vs. 54 percent). Higher percentages of American Indian/ Alaska Native families were headed by males with no spouse present than White, Black, or Asian/Pacific Islander families (11 percent vs. 7, 8, and 5 percent, respectively).

View Table 1.5

¹A family is a group of two or more people who reside together and who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption. By contrast, a household includes all the people who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence. A "family household" contains at least one family within the household. References in this text refer to family households.