About one-in-five children are living with a solo mom % of children younger than 18 living with
The share of U.S. children living with an unmarried parent has more than doubled since 1968, jumping from 13% to 32% in 2017. That trend has been accompanied by a drop in the share of children living with two married parents, down from 85% in 1968 to 65%. Some 3% of children are not living with any parents, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
Most children in unmarried parent households are living with a solo mother, but a growing share are living with cohabiting parents. Overall, about one-in-five children (21%) are living with a solo mother, up from 12% in 1968. Some 7% are living with cohabiting parents, about double the share that were doing so in 1997 (the first year for which census data on cohabitation are available). The share of children living with a solo father has ticked up, and stands at 4%, up from 1% in 1968. (In this analysis, children are classified based on the parent with whom they live most of the time. Children who split their time equally between households are classified based on which household they were in at the time of the data collection.)
About one-in-five children are living with a solo mom  | % of children younger than 18 living with  | UNMARRIED PARENTS  | Cohabiting  | Married  | Solo  | Solo  | parents  | mother  | father  | parents  | 2017  | 21  | 65  | 1997  | 68  | 22  | 1968  | 85  | 2  | Note: Children who are not living with any parents ware not shown. Survey Data regarding cohabitation available since 1997 only.  | Source: Pew Research Center analysis of Current Population Survey March Supplement (IPUMS).  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 