Indicator 3. Children's Living Arrangements

In 2007, about 73.9 million children under 18 years old resided in the United States. Of these children, 66 percent lived with married parents, 25 percent lived with a female parent with no spouse present, 7 percent lived with a male parent with no spouse present, and 2 percent lived in other arrangements.⁴

Across all racial/ethnic groups shown except Blacks and American Indians/Alaska Natives, the majority of children under 18 years old lived with married parents. About 83 percent of all Asian children lived with married parents, higher than the percentages for White children (75 percent), Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander children (61 percent), Hispanic children (61 percent), children of two or more races (56 percent), American Indian/Alaska Native children (47 percent), and Black children (34 percent). A higher percentage of Black children lived with a female parent with no spouse present (56 percent) than did American Indian/Alaska Native children (38 percent), children of two or more races (34 percent), Hispanic children (28 percent), Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander children (27 percent), White children (17 percent), and Asian children (11 percent). A higher percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native children (11 percent) lived with a male parent with no spouse present than did Hispanic children (9 percent), Black children (8 percent), children of two or more races (7 percent), White children (6 percent), and Asian children (5 percent). Two percent of all children lived in other arrangements, with percentages by race/ethnicity ranging from 1 percent of Asian children to 4 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native children.

View Table 3
View Figure 3

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