CB05-FF.05 May 2, 2005 Printable PDF Version (89k) |
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Mother’s Day: May 8, 2005The first Mother’s Day observance was a church service in 1908 requested by Anna Jarvis, of Philadelphia, to honor her deceased mother. Jarvis, at an early age, had heard her mother express hope that a day to commemorate all mothers would be established. Her mother had also expressed the sentiment that there were many days dedicated to men but none to mothers. Two years after her mother’s death, Jarvis and friends began a letter-writing campaign to declare a national Mother’s Day observance to honor mothers. In 1914, Congress passed legislation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. |
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How Many Mothers82.5 millionEstimated number of mothers of all ages in the United States. (From unpublished Survey of Income and Program Participation data.) 68% 82%
New Moms4.0 millionNumber of women who have babies each year. Of this number, about 425,000 are teens ages 15 to 19, and more than 100,000 are age 40 or over. 25.1 40% 35,000 |
Mothers Remembered23,094Number of florists nationwide in 2002 [PDF]. The florists’ 119,117 employees will be especially busy preparing, selling and delivering floral arrangements for Mother’s Day. The flowers bought for mom probably were grown in California or Colombia. Among the 36 surveyed states, California was the leading provider of cut flowers in 2003 [PDF], accounting for more than two-thirds of the domestic production ($306 million out of $425 million) in those states. Meanwhile, the value of U.S. imports of cut flowers and fresh flower buds in 2004 from Colombia, the leading foreign supplier to the United States, was more than $385 million. $5 billion More than |
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1-in-32 |
Single Moms10 millionThe number of single mothers [PDF] living with children under 18 years old, up from 3 million in 1970. |
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August Tuesday |
How Many Children2Average number of children [PDF] that women today can expect to have in their lifetime. 3 Only about 10 percent of women today end their childbearing years with four or more children [PDF]. That compares with 36 percent in 1976. |
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Working Moms55%Among mothers with infant children in 2002, the percentage in the labor force, down from a record 59 percent in 1998. This marks the first significant decline in this rate since the Census Bureau began calculating this measure in 1976. In that year, 31 percent of mothers with infants were in the labor force. |
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63% Among mothers between ages 15 and 44 who do not have infants, 72 percent are in the labor force. More than 687,000 About 2 million |
Number of stay-at-home moms in 2003. Thirty-nine percent of these mothers were under the age of 35. |
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Following is a list of observances typically covered by the Census Bureau Facts for Features series: | ||||||||
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Individual source links for each statement
herein may be accessed on the Internet at The photos
herein may be downloaded and are available free for your use in all
print and broadcast products. Editor’s note: Some of the preceding data were collected in surveys and, therefore, are subject to sampling error. Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau’s Public Information Office at (301) 763-3030; fax (301) 457-3670; or e-mail <pio@census.gov>. |