Only 46% of US children now living with their married parents

December 23, 2014

A minority of children in the US today are living with their married parents, a new study by the Pew Research Center has found.

In 1960, 73% of American children under the age of 18 were living with their married parents. In 1980 the figure had dropped to 62%. But now it is 46%, Pew found, analyzing US Census data and the new American Community Survey.

Today 41% of the children under 18 were born outside of marriage (that figure was only 5% in 1960). About 15% are living with one parent who has divorced and remarried, 4% are living with parents who are cohabiting but not married, and 5% are not living with either parent (most frequently, with one or more grandparents).

 

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Further information:

• Less than half of U.S. kids today live in a ‘traditional’ family (Pew)