In 2022, about 25,338 children under one-year-old in the United States were living in foster care. In that same year, about 20,163 children aged 16 years old were living in foster care nationwide.

Around 6.8 million families had three or more children under 18 living in the household in 2023. In that same year, about 51.05 million households had no children under 18 living in the household.

In 2022, there were about 25.8 million children between the ages of 12 and 17 years old living in the United States. On the other hand, there were about 22.4 million children between the ages of zero and five years old in the country.

In 2022, about 108,877 children in the United States were waiting to be adopted. This is a decrease from a high of 133,682 children who were waiting to be adopted nationwide in 2007.

In 2021, there were slightly more boys in foster care in the United States than girls. In that year, about 191,037 children in foster care were female, representing a little less than half of the total children in foster care.

The typical American picture of a family with 2.5 kids might not be as relevant as it once was: In 2023, there was an average of 1.94 children under 18 per family in the United States. This is a decrease from 2.33 children under 18 per family in 1960.

Familial structure in the United States

If there’s one thing the United States is known for, it’s diversity. Whether this is diversity in ethnicity, culture, or family structure, there is something for everyone in the U.S. Two-parent households in the U.S. are declining, and the number of families with no children are increasing. The number of families with children has stayed more or less constant since 2000.

Adoptions in the U.S.

Families in the U.S. don’t necessarily consist of parents and their own biological children. In 2021, around 35,940 children were adopted by married couples, and 13,307 children were adopted by single women.

The number of children aged between zero and five years old living in the U.S. amounted to around 22.53 million in 2022. This number has been trending downwards since 2010 when there were around 25.52 million children aged zero to five living in the U.S.

In 2021, about 206,812 children in the United States entered into foster care in that year. This is a decrease from the previous year, when 216,842 children across the country entered into foster care.

In 2021, about 35,940 children who were adopted in the United States with public agency involvement were adopted by a married couple. In that same year, a further 13,307 children in the country were adopted by a single woman.

In the United States, the goal in the majority of foster care cases was to reunite children with their parents or primary caretakers. In 2021, this was the case for 201,297 children, or about 53 percent of the children in the foster care system.

In 2022, about 40.26 percent of all family households in the United States had their own children under age 18 living in the household. This is compared to the approximate 50.62 percent of female led households with their own children.

In 2021, the majority of children living in foster care in the United States were living in foster homes. In that year, about 171,627 children were living in a foster family home with people to whom they were not related.

This statistic shows the number of family households with own children under 18 years of age in the United States in 2022, by age of the children. In 2022, about 9.23 million U.S. family households had their own children between three and five years of age living in the household.

In 2022, about 19.22 million children in the United States lived with one parent. A further 51.45 million children lived with two parents in that year.

Detailed figures for children living with either a mother or a father only can be found here. The figures for children living with other relatives or non-relatives have been added up for the "No parents" column.

In the fiscal year of 2021, 27,145 of the children adopted in the United States with public agency involvement were white. In that same year, a further 10,991 children adopted in the country were Hispanic.

This statistic shows the number of children living in households in the United States from 2010 to 2021, by age group. In 2022, there were around 34.6 million children eight years and under and around 38.7 million children between the ages of nine and 17-years-old living in U.S. households.

The number of children under the age of 18 living in households in the United States was 72,296 in 2023. Of that number, 12,014 were between the ages of six and eight.

This statistic looks at the number of children aged between zero and five years of age in the United States from 2013 to 2020. The statistic shows a steady growth in numbers from 2000 to 2015 and then there is a slight decrease over the next five years,

In 2022, about 53,665 children in the United States were adopted with the involvement of the public child welfare agency. This is a decrease from the previous year, when 54,240 children were adopted with public child welfare agency involvement.

In the United States, most children who exited foster care, about half, exited due to reunification with their parents or primary caregivers. In 2022, about 91,115 children exited foster care in this manner. A further 52,985 children exited the foster care system through adoption.