EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EST, DECEMBER 11, 1998 (FRIDAY) Public Information Office CB98-228 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-4067 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Lynne Casper/Ken Bryson 301-457-2416/2465Growth in Single Fathers Outpaces Growth in Single Mothers, Census Bureau Reports While the number of single mothers (9.8 million) has remained constant over the past three years, the number of single fathers has grown 25 percent, from 1.7 million in 1995 to 2.1 million in 1998, according to tabulations released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. Men now comprise one-sixth of the nation's 11.9 million single parents.
Other highlights for 1998 include:
- Of the 102.5 million households in the United States, 69 percent are family households. The share of family households fell 10 percentage points between 1970 and 1990 (from 81 percent to 71 percent) but has dropped only 2 percentage points since.
- About half (49 percent) of family households contain children under 18, down from 56 percent in 1970.
- The growth of one-parent families is slowing. They comprise 27 percent of family households with children, up from 24 percent in 1990 and 11 percent in 1970.
- Nearly 22 million adult (ages 18 or older) sons and daughters live in a home maintained by one or both parents, up from 15 million in 1970.
- The average U.S. family household consists of 3.18 people, down from 3.58 in 1970, but unchanged from 1990. Hispanic families are larger, with an average of 3.92 members, than either African American or non-Hispanic White families, which average 3.42 and 3.02 members, respectively.
The tabulations are contained in Household and Family Characteristics: March 1998 (Update), The detailed and historical tables contain data on the type and size of households and families, the presence of children within them and the age, race and ethnicity of householders. Although the data are primarily national level, one table shows the average number of children per family by state.
A household is defined as a person or group of persons who live in a housing unit. A family is defined as a group of two or more people (one of whom is the householder, the person in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented) living together and related by birth, marriage or adoption.
The tabulations come from the March 1998 Current Population Survey. As in all surveys, the data are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error.
-X-The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely, relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in 1790.
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