Family Structure Key Facts .....................................................................................................................................................C-2 Living Arrangements of Children, 2010 ........................................................................................................C-3 Children Living with Neither Parent, 2010 (graph) .......................................................................................C-3 Trends in Teen Birth Rates, 1980-2008 (graph) ...........................................................................................C-4 Teen Birth Rates...........................................................................................................................................C-5 Kinship Care Families ..................................................................................................................................C-6 Children Living with Grandparents or Other Relatives, 2009 .......................................................................C-7 Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren, 2009, Selected Characteristics ...............................................C-8 Parents Who Are Incarcerated and Their Children.......................................................................................C-9
Family Structure
A
ll children deserve safe, permanent and loving families. Family structure and stability impact the availability of resources—both emotional and financial—for children. Single parents often need extra support and teen parents even more. The birth rate for Hispanic teens ages 15 – 19 is twice that for White teens, but just above that for Black and American Indian teens. Often grandparents or other relatives step in when parents cannot care for their children—parents may have died, be incarcerated or struggling with substance abuse or other health challenges. Some children end up in foster care. Movement from home to home and family to family can increase risks for the children as they seek needed stability. • About 70 percent of all children—but fewer than 40 percent of Black children—live with two parents. Twenty-three percent of all children and 50 percent of Black children live with their mother only. • Black children are more than twice as likely as White children, almost twice as likely as Hispanic children, and three-and-a-half times more likely than Asian/Pacific Islander children to live with neither parent. • Almost five percent of Black children live with grandparents; Black children are twice as likely as all children to live with their grandparents only or other relatives. • More than 940,000 grandchildren are being raised by grandparents with neither of their parents present. • Sixty-one percent of grandparents who report being responsible for their grandchildren are in the labor force; 20 percent of grandparents raising grandchildren live in poverty. • Black children are more than seven times as likely and Hispanic children are more than two-and-a-half times as likely as White children to have a parent in prison.
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Children’s Defense Fund
Almost 70 percent of all children live with two parents. About half of Black children and one-fourth of Hispanic children live with their mother only.
Living Arrangements of Children, 2010 Total, all races
White
Black
Asian
Hispanic
Living with two parents
69.4%
74.9%
39.2%
85.5%
67.0%
Living with mother only
23.1
18.3
49.7
10.1
26.3
Living with father only
3.4
3.5
3.6
2.2
2.7
Living with neither parent
4.1
3.4
7.5
2.1
4.0
Grandparents only
2.2
1.8
4.6
0.7
1.9
Other relatives only
0.9
0.6
1.8
0.7
1.1
Nonrelatives only
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.4
0.7
Other arrangement
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.2
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, March 2010 Current Population Survey, America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2010, Table C9, Children by Presence and Type of Parents, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 2010, at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hhfam/cps2010.html.
Black children are almost twice as likely as White or Hispanic children (and almost three-and-a-half times as likely as Asian children) to live with neither parent.
Children Living with Neither Parent, 2010 8 7.5%
Percent
6
4.1%
4.0%
4
3.4%
2.1% 2
0 Total, All races
Black
Hispanic
White
Asian
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, March 2010 Current Population Survey, America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2010, Table C9, Children by Presence and Type of Parents, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 2010, at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2010.html.
State of America’s Children® 2011
C-3
The teen birth rate rose slightly in 2006 and 2007 for the first time in 15 years, but then declined again in 2008.
Trends in Teen Birth Rates, 1980–2008
Births per 1,000 females ages 15–19
120 100
Black
Hispanic* American Indian
77.5
80
63.4
60
58.4
All Races 41.5
40
37.8
Whtie
20
16.2
Asian
0 1980
1984
1989
1994
1999
2004
2008
American Indian
Asian, Pacific Islander
Hispanic*
97.8 94.5 94.3 93.9 94.1 95.4 95.8 97.6 102.7 111.5 112.8 114.8 111.3 107.3 102.9 94.4 89.6 86.3 83.5 79.1 77.4 71.8 66.6 63.8 63.3 62.0 64.6
82.2 78.4 83.5 84.2 81.5 79.2 78.1 77.2 77.5 82.7 81.1 84.1 82.4 79.8 76.4 72.9 68.2 65.2 64.7 59.9 58.3 56.3 53.8 53.1 52.5 52.7 55.0
26.2 28.5 29.4 26.1 24.2 23.8 22.8 22.4 24.2 25.6 26.4 27.3 26.5 26.5 26.6 25.5 23.5 22.3 22.2 21.4 20.5 19.8 18.3 17.4 17.3 17.0 17.0
n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 100.8 100.3 104.6 103.3 101.8 101.3 99.3 94.6 89.6 87.9 86.8 87.3 86.4 83.4 82.3 82.6 81.7 83.0
64.9 63.4
59.3 58.4
16.9 16.2
81.8 77.5
All Races
White
Black
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
53.0 52.2 52.4 51.4 50.6 51.0 50.2 50.6 53.0 57.3 59.9 61.8 60.3 59.0 58.2 56.0 53.5 51.3 50.3 48.8 47.7 45.3 43.0 41.6 41.1 40.5 41.9
45.4 44.9 45.0 43.9 42.9 43.3 42.3 42.5 44.4 47.9 50.8 52.6 51.4 50.6 50.5 49.5 47.5 45.5 44.9 44.0 43.2 41.2 39.4 38.3 37.7 37.0 38.2
2007 2008 2009
42.5 41.5 39.1**
38.8 37.8
*Persons of Hispanic origin can be of any race; Hispanic data prior to 1989 not available. ** Preliminary data. No preliminary race data available for teen birth rates in 2009. Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 59, No. 1 (December, 2010), Births: Final Data for 2008, Table 4. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_01.pdf.
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Children’s Defense Fund
Teen birth rates declined in all states between 1995 and 2000 but were higher in 2008 than in 2000 in seven states. There are great disparities among the states in teen birth rates, with a high of 65.7 births per 1,000 teens in Mississippi to a low of 19.8 births per 1,000 teens in New Hampshire.
Teen Birth Rates1 1990
1995
2000
2005
2006
2007
2008
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
71.0 65.3 75.5 80.1 70.6 54.5 38.8 54.5 93.1 69.1 75.5 61.2 50.6 62.9 58.6 40.5 56.1 67.6 74.2 43.0 53.2 35.1 59.0 36.3 81.0 62.8 48.4 42.3 73.3 33.0 40.5 78.2 43.6 67.6 35.4 57.9 66.8 54.6 44.9 43.9 71.3 46.8 72.3 75.3 48.5 34.0 52.9 53.1 57.3 42.6 56.3
68.5 54.5 73.5 71.9 66.8 52.3 38.6 54.6 85.2 60.2 69.8 48.8 48.7 58.4 56.6 38.3 52.0 62.3 69.9 33.9 47.2 33.3 49.1 32.5 79.2 55.1 42.4 37.8 73.4 30.3 37.7 74.0 42.2 63.0 32.9 53.4 63.7 50.1 40.9 39.8 62.8 40.9 66.6 75.6 40.9 28.1 48.4 48.0 52.7 37.9 47.9
60.7 49.0 67.9 66.2 47.0 51.3 31.1 48.0 53.2 51.1 62.8 46.1 42.9 48.0 49.1 34.2 46.1 55.1 62.1 29.2 41.3 25.9 40.2 30.1 70.1 48.7 36.7 37.7 63.0 23.3 31.8 65.6 33.2 58.6 27.3 46.0 59.7 42.8 34.0 33.6 58.0 38.1 59.5 68.9 38.3 23.4 40.9 39.2 46.5 35.2 41.7
49.7 37.3 58.2 59.1 38.8 42.6 23.3 44.0 63.4 42.4 52.7 36.2 37.7 38.6 43.2 32.6 41.4 49.1 49.1 24.4 31.8 21.8 32.5 26.1 60.5 42.5 35.2 34.2 50.1 17.9 23.4 61.6 26.5 48.5 29.7 38.9 54.2 33.0 30.4 31.4 51.0 37.5 54.9 61.6 33.4 18.6 34.4 31.1 43.4 30.3 43.2
53.5 44.3 62.0 62.3 39.9 43.8 23.5 41.9 48.4 45.2 54.2 40.5 39.2 39.5 43.5 32.9 42.0 54.6 53.9 25.8 33.6 21.3 33.8 27.9 68.4 45.7 39.6 33.4 55.8 18.7 24.9 64.1 25.7 49.7 26.5 40.0 59.6 35.7 31.0 27.8 53.0 40.2 54.7 63.1 34.0 20.8 35.2 33.4 44.9 30.9 47.3
54.1 44.7 61.2 61.7 39.7 43.4 23.1 40.6 49.9 45.5 54.9 41.3 41.4 40.0 45.2 33.2 43.7 55.1 55.9 26.9 34.4 22.1 34.2 28.6 71.9 45.7 36.8 36.1 55.3 20.0 25.2 66.1 25.8 49.9 29.3 41.3 61.5 35.9 31.5 30.0 53.6 42.2 56.2 64.2 36.1 22.0 35.1 34.8 47.4 32.2 51.9
53.0 46.8 56.2 61.8 38.4 42.5 22.9 40.4 50.9 42.8 51.8 42.1 41.2 38.1 43.7 33.9 45.6 55.6 54.1 26.1 32.8 20.1 33.2 27.2 65.7 45.5 40.7 36.5 53.5 19.8 24.5 64.1 25.2 49.4 28.6 41.0 61.6 37.2 31.5 28.5 53.1 40.0 55.6 63.4 35.1 21.3 33.5 34.6 48.8 31.3 49.2
United States
59.9
56.0
47.7
40.5
41.9
42.5
41.5
1Number of births to teens ages 15-19 per 1,000 females ages 15-19.
Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 52, No. 12 (August 4, 2003), Revised Birth and Fertility Rates for the 1990s and New Rates for Hispanic Populations, 2000 and 2001: United States, Table 10; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 56, No. 6 (December 5, 2007), Births: Final Data 2005, Table 11; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 57, No. 7 (Jaunaru 7, 2009), Births: Final Data 2006, Table 11; and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 59, No. 1 (December, 2010), Births: Final Data for 2008, Table B.
State of America’s ChildrenŽ 2011
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Kinship Care Families The terms “kinship care families” or “grandfamilies” are used to describe families where grandparents or other relatives are raising their grandchildren or other related children when the children’s parents are unable to do so. More than seven million children are living in multi-generational households headed by grandparents and other relatives. Sometimes the child’s parent lives there too, but other times they do not. Children may live with a relative because their parent needs additional support to help raise them or because their parent is unable to care for them. Generally, the Children’s Defense Fund refers to children being raised by relatives as those who are living with relatives who are responsible for them without their parents present.
Children Living with Grandparents or Other Relatives
7,094,116 children live with a grandparent or other relative who is the head of the household. 5,345,635 of these are grandchildren who live with a grandparent who is the head of the household. 2,867,125 of these grandchildren live with a grandparent who reports being responsible for them. 943,356 grandchildren are being raised by grandparents who are responsible for them and the children’s parent is not present in the home.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren 6,687,495 grandparents are the heads of households and live with their grandchildren. 2,696,053 of these grandparents live with their grandchildren and report being responsible for them. 904,488 grandparents live with their grandchildren and report being responsible for them without that child’s parent being present in the home.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2009 American Community Survey, Tables B09006, B10002, B10050 and B10051. Calculations by Children’s Defense Fund.
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Children’s Defense Fund
More than 2.8 million grandchildren live with grandparents who report they are responsible for them. One-third of these children have no parent living with them.
Children Living with Grandparents or Other Relatives, 2009
Living in households headed by: Grandparent Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming United States
Other Relative
Grandchildren living with grandparents responsible for them: No parent of grandchild present Total
Number
Percent
110,977 12,532 144,835 58,192 735,450 61,202 48,152 14,852 13,397 315,514 213,418 40,584 18,862 213,258 105,558 26,755 31,443 88,582 121,196 11,521 106,405 73,562 134,355 42,631 105,511 92,581 13,540 19,563 50,791 13,669 114,430 51,013 304,458 155,146 5,309 158,704 67,976 49,809 172,803 13,236 96,450 12,506 138,120 610,289 46,812 4,365 119,711 82,908 38,366 57,033 7,303
26,954 3,482 50,610 11,772 367,117 26,556 11,862 4,487 6,169 97,802 73,132 11,314 6,117 74,899 21,877 7,098 11,160 19,953 29,973 3,143 34,245 22,430 35,082 14,487 22,131 24,177 3,678 4,932 21,094 2,603 42,586 11,144 106,983 48,977 1,117 40,364 16,136 14,646 41,379 4,799 25,705 3,710 32,339 194,691 16,885 1,138 39,017 28,925 6,741 19,260 1,603
71,625 6,925 77,722 39,302 313,542 33,170 23,508 9,075 5,802 171,592 130,841 10,509 11,156 113,181 66,730 14,120 18,083 63,493 75,238 5,572 51,916 30,637 68,951 21,194 69,008 50,460 8,829 11,119 28,337 6,247 50,741 29,365 140,185 99,144 3,048 90,061 43,479 27,189 85,003 4,835 56,740 8,207 80,695 356,410 18,381 1,928 62,220 43,781 23,603 29,199 5,027
26,980 2,241 22,396 15,335 75,160 13,047 8,444 2,469 1,691 58,614 48,057 2,788 3,652 33,817 21,124 4,650 7,081 28,348 29,128 2,564 15,109 8,630 20,963 6,623 22,358 19,245 4,195 4,531 7,135 1,909 16,147 9,593 39,526 40,564 1,030 33,999 17,062 8,319 32,900 1,554 22,721 2,818 29,230 103,547 4,489 1,115 21,890 16,690 9,916 9,563 2,399
37.7% 32.4 28.8 39.0 24.0 39.3 35.9 27.2 29.1 34.2 36.7 26.5 32.7 29.9 31.7 32.9 39.2 44.6 38.7 46.0 29.1 28.2 30.4 31.2 32.4 38.1 47.5 40.8 25.2 30.6 31.8 32.7 28.2 40.9 33.8 37.8 39.2 30.6 38.7 32.1 40.0 34.3 36.2 29.1 24.4 57.8 35.2 38.1 42.0 32.8 47.7
5,345,635
1,748,481
2,867,125
943,356
32.9
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2009 American Community Survey, Tables B09006 and B10002. Calculations by Children’s Defense Fund.
State of America’s Children® 2011
C-7
Nearly 2.7 million grandparents report being responsible for their grandchildren; 36 percent have had this responsibility for five years or more.
Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren, 2009 Selected Characteristics Total number who report being responsible Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming United States
Grandparents raising children without parent present Number Percent
64,874 7,535 64,725 37,866 298,557 33,112 23,974 8,102 4,061 160,821 110,881 10,918 11,827 101,647 66,164 13,435 20,648 59,763 64,835 6,199 47,117 33,678 69,712 22,399 49,366 50,101 7,098 10,590 26,461 6,257 50,138 27,418 141,157 98,493 2,663 93,158 40,367 25,210 85,303 5,856 52,462 7,306 77,238 314,383 19,549 2,406 62,153 44,105 21,773 27,904 4,288
26,581 1,954 18,549 14,735 70,097 12,434 9,497 2,927 1,452 56,249 41,232 2,784 3,782 29,184 22,257 4,519 7,771 26,597 25,112 2,903 13,371 9,357 21,693 6,967 18,076 19,660 2,954 4,358 7,328 2,268 14,541 9,040 37,400 42,419 1,115 35,856 16,787 9,336 33,175 1,771 20,815 3,450 30,648 96,032 4,943 1,294 21,580 16,749 9,658 9,075 2,156
2,696,053
904,488
41.0% 25.9 28.7 38.9 23.5 37.6 39.6 36.1 35.8 35.0 37.2 25.5 32.0 28.7 33.6 33.6 37.6 44.5 38.7 46.8 28.4 27.8 31.1 31.1 36.6 39.2 41.6 41.2 27.7 36.2 29.0 33.0 26.5 43.1 41.9 38.5 41.6 37.0 38.9 30.2 39.7 47.2 39.7 30.5 25.3 53.8 34.7 38.0 44.4 32.5 50.3 33.5
Number in labor force
Number
35,102 4,433 38,719 21,789 181,206 21,245 15,275 5,597 1,330 98,934 65,451 5,911 7,814 66,996 41,620 9,754 14,440 31,543 33,962 3,760 31,264 22,072 40,863 15,269 28,795 31,311 4,471 7,433 16,319 4,706 31,900 17,920 79,560 62,191 1,724 57,562 24,826 16,060 50,576 3,982 31,615 4,740 44,461 198,281 13,320 1,439 40,467 28,527 10,578 18,014 2,931
17,334 778 15,168 9,724 47,485 6,249 3,826 911 1,533 34,356 28,692 1,691 2,064 21,091 15,279 1,945 3,015 14,668 18,411 760 6,886 4,176 12,793 5,168 14,033 8,993 1,641 1,613 2,641 600 6,133 5,613 30,569 23,470 540 20,220 9,328 3,438 14,940 743 12,127 1,850 18,479 70,029 1,987 567 8,793 6,542 4,059 6,367 156
1,648,058
549,474
Poor Percent 26.7% 10.3 23.4 25.7 15.9 18.9 16.0 11.2 37.7 21.4 25.9 15.5 17.5 20.7 23.1 14.5 14.6 24.5 28.4 12.3 14.6 12.4 18.4 23.1 28.4 17.9 23.1 15.2 10.0 9.6 12.2 20.5 21.7 23.8 20.3 21.7 23.1 13.6 17.5 12.7 23.1 25.3 23.9 22.3 10.2 23.6 14.1 14.8 18.6 22.8 3.6
40.6% 24.3 37.1 30.2 36.7 34.6 34.8 37.3 59.2 34.6 35.9 47.3 30.2 36.2 31.6 26.8 31.6 37.0 40.1 31.8 35.2 33.3 30.0 36.3 39.5 33.9 44.8 32.9 32.6 32.1 40.4 30.5 41.6 36.0 50.1 34.7 41.7 35.8 39.2 20.9 41.1 35.5 33.6 34.6 33.4 23.5 38.8 35.7 41.5 33.2 19.5
20.4
36.1
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2009 American Community Survey, Tables B10050 and B10051. Calculations by Children’s Defense Fund.
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Children’s Defense Fund
Percent responsible for five years or more
More than 1.7 million children have a parent in prison. About 45 percent of these children are Black.
Parents Who Are Incarcerated and Their Children More than 800,000 parents of minor children are in prison. About eight percent are mothers. Total, all races
White, nonHispanic
Black, nonHispanic
Hispanic
Fathers Mothers
744,200 65,600
223,700 31,700
319,400 18,300
160,100 11,100
Total
809,800
255,400
337,700
171,200
Black children are more than seven times as likely and Hispanic children are more than two and a half times as likely as White children to have a parent in prison. Number with a parent in prison
White, non-Hispanic children Black, non-Hispanic children Hispanic children Total, all children
484,100 767,400 362,800 1,706,600
Percent with a parent in prison
0.9% 6.7 2.4 2.3
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children (August 2008), Table 2 and Appendix Table 2. Calculations by Children's Defense Fund
State of America’s ChildrenŽ 2011
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