In 2023, approximately 38.1 million single-person led households in the United States. This is an increase from the previous year, when there were 37.89 million single-person households in the United States.

This statistic shows the percentage of single-person households in the United States in 2022, by state. In 2022, about 23.9 percent of Californian households were single-person households. In 2022, there were an estimated 36.05 million single-person households in the U.S. The number of single-person households has increased gradually since 1960.

According to a survey conducted in early 2025, 97 percent of single American stated that they did not want artificial intelligence involved in the dating process, while over 72 percent would feel very concerned if they realized someone was respondeing to them using AI. Overall, 15 percent of respondents thought that AI assistants would be useful for dating purposes.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in District of Columbia (S1101SPHOUSE011001) from 2009 to 2023 about single-parent, DC, households, 5-year, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Dane County, WI (S1101SPHOUSE055025) from 2009 to 2023 about Dane County, WI; Madison; single-parent; WI; households; 5-year; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Hancock County, OH (S1101SPHOUSE039063) from 2009 to 2023 about Hancock County, OH; single-parent; OH; households; 5-year; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Homeownership Rate in the United States (RHORUSQ156N) from Q1 1965 to Q2 2025 about homeownership, housing, rate, and USA.

The following data set is information obtained about counties in the United States from 2010 through 2019 through the United States Census Bureau. Information described in the data includes the age distributions, the education levels, employment statistics, ethnicity percents, houseold information, income, and other miscellneous statistics. (Values are denoted as -1, if the data is not available)

Data Dictionary

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Key	List of...	Comment	Example Value
County	String	County name	"Abbeville County"
State	String	State name	"SC"
Age.Percent 65 and Older	Float	Estimated percentage of population whose ages are equal or greater than 65 years old are produced for the United States states and counties as well as for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its municipios (county-equivalents for Puerto Rico).	22.4
Age.Percent Under 18 Years	Float	Estimated percentage of population whose ages are under 18 years old are produced for the United States states and counties as well as for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its municipios (county-equivalents for Puerto Rico).	19.8
Age.Percent Under 5 Years	Float	Estimated percentage of population whose ages are under 5 years old are produced for the United States states and counties as well as for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its municipios (county-equivalents for Puerto Rico).	4.7
Education.Bachelor's Degree or Higher	Float	Percentage for the people who attended college but did not receive a degree and people who received an associate's bachelor's master's or professional or doctorate degree. These data include only persons 25 years old and over. The percentages are obtained by dividing the counts of graduates by the total number of persons 25 years old and over. Tha data is collected from 2015 to 2019.	15.6
Education.High School or Higher	Float	Percentage of people whose highest degree was a high school diploma or its equivalent people who attended college but did not receive a degree and people who received an associate's bachelor's master's or professional or doctorate degree. These data include only persons 25 years old and over. The percentages are obtained by dividing the counts of graduates by the total number of persons 25 years old and over. Tha data is collected from 2015 to 2019	81.7
Employment.Nonemployer Establishments	Integer	An establishment is a single physical location at which business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. It is not necessarily identical with a company or enterprise which may consist of one establishment or more. The data was collected from 2018.	1416
Ethnicities.American Indian and Alaska Native Alone	Float	Estimated percentage of population having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment. This category includes people who indicate their race as "American Indian or Alaska Native" or report entries such as Navajo Blackfeet Inupiat Yup'ik or Central American Indian groups or South American Indian groups.	0.3
Ethnicities.Asian Alone	Float	Estimated percentage of population having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East Southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent including for example Cambodia China India Japan Korea Malaysia Pakistan the Philippine Islands Thailand and Vietnam. This includes people who reported detailed Asian responses such as: "Asian Indian " "Chinese " "Filipino " "Korean " "Japanese " "Vietnamese " and "Other Asian" or provide other detailed Asian responses.	0.4
Ethnicities.Black Alone	Float	Estimated percentage of population having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black or African American " or report entries such as African American Kenyan Nigerian or Haitian.	27.6
Ethnicities.Hispanic or Latino	Float

The average American household consisted of 2.51 people in 2023.

Households in the U.S.

As shown in the statistic, the number of people per household has decreased over the past decades.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines a household as follows: “a household includes all the persons who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence. A housing unit is a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as separate living quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live and eat separately from any other persons in the building and which have direct access from outside the building or through a common hall. The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated persons who share living arrangements. (People not living in households are classified as living in group quarters.).”

The population of the United States has been growing steadily for decades. Since 1960, the number of households more than doubled from 53 million to over 131 million households in 2023.

Most of these households, about 34 percent, are two-person households. The distribution of U.S. households has changed over the years though. The percentage of single-person households has been on the rise since 1970 and made up the second largest proportion of households in the U.S. in 2022, at 28.88 percent.

In concordance with the rise of single-person households, the percentage of family households with own children living in the household has declined since 1970 from 56 percent to 40.26 percent in 2022.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Clark County, WA (S1101SPHOUSE053011) from 2009 to 2023 about Clark County, WA; single-parent; Portland; WA; households; 5-year; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Guilford County, NC (S1101SPHOUSE037081) from 2009 to 2023 about Guilford County, NC; Greensboro; single-parent; NC; households; 5-year; and USA.

This statistic shows the results of a survey conducted in the United States in 2017 on the duration of the current relationship status of Americans. The results were then sorted by age. Some 39 percent of respondents between 30 and 49 years stated they have been single/in a relationship for more than 10 years.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in El Paso County, TX (S1101SPHOUSE048141) from 2009 to 2023 about El Paso County, TX; El Paso; single-parent; TX; households; 5-year; and USA.

In 2023, there were about 15.09 million children living with a single mother in the United States, and about 3.05 million children living with a single father. The number of children living with a single mother is down from its peak in 2012, and the number of children living with a single father is down from its peak in 2005.

Marriage and divorce in the United States

Despite popular opinion in the United States that “half of all marriages end in divorce,” the divorce rate in the U.S. has fallen significantly since 1992. The marriage rate, which has also been decreasing since the 1990s, was still higher than the divorce rate in 2021. Half of all marriages may not end in divorce, but it does seem that fewer people are choosing to get married in the first place.

New family structures

In addition to a falling marriage rate, fewer people in the U.S. have children under the age of 18 living in the house in comparison to 1970. Over the past decade, the share of families with children under 18, whether that be married couples or single parents, has stayed mostly steady, although the number of births in the U.S. has also fallen.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Maricopa County, AZ (S1101SPHOUSE004013) from 2009 to 2023 about Maricopa County, AZ; single-parent; Phoenix; AZ; households; 5-year; and USA.

This statistic shows the moral stance of Americans regarding an affair between a married man and a married woman in 2018. During the survey, 10 percent of respondents stated that they think an affair between a married man and a married woman is morally acceptable.

The moral acceptance of social issues in the US

More than two thirds of respondents to a survey in the United States responded that they believe that sex between an unmarried man and woman is morally acceptable, while one third believed that it is morally wrong and only 1 percent stated that it is not a moral issue. Unsurprisingly, when posing the same question to respondents of the Mormon faith, a significantly higher percentage stated they believed that premarital sex is morally wrong.

Regarding other morally acceptable or unacceptable actions, divorce had an acceptance rate of 71 percent among the American population, and the use of birth control was deemed acceptable – remarkably higher than the acceptance rates for premarital sex.

In the United States, the likelihood of divorce after the first marriage is at about 41 percent, and proportionally higher the more times one gets hitched; and it is increasingly more accepted than it has been in the past. Interestingly, the 2015 results for premarital sex acceptance in the United States are quite different from the results of a similar survey back in 2013, conducted globally, in which 36 percent of respondents in the United States said that premarital sex is not a moral issue, only 29 percent responded that it was acceptable and 30 percent stated it was unacceptable. The country with the least acceptance was Pakistan, where no one responded that premarital sex was acceptable. This is not surprising when taking into account that Pakistan is an Islamic Republic. In contrast, Czechia had the highest acceptance rates, a country with one of the largest atheist populations worldwide.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Orange County, FL (S1101SPHOUSE012095) from 2009 to 2023 about Orange County, FL; single-parent; Orlando; FL; households; 5-year; and USA.

In 2024, 34.59 percent of all households in the United States were two person households. In 1970, this figure was at 28.92 percent. Single households Single mother households are usually the most common households with children under 18 years old found in the United States. As of 2021, the District of Columbia and North Dakota had the highest share of single-person households in the United States. Household size in the United States has decreased over the past century, due to customs and traditions changing. Families are typically more nuclear, whereas in the past, multigenerational households were more common. Furthermore, fertility rates have also decreased, meaning that women do not have as many children as they used to. Average households in Utah Out of all states in the U.S., Utah was reported to have the largest average household size. This predominately Mormon state has about three million inhabitants. The Church of the Latter-Day Saints, or Mormonism, plays a large role in Utah, and can contribute to the high birth rate and household size in Utah. The Church of Latter-Day Saints promotes having many children and tight-knit families. Furthermore, Utah has a relatively young population, due to Mormons typically marrying and starting large families younger than those in other states.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Niagara County, NY (S1101SPHOUSE036063) from 2009 to 2023 about Niagara County, NY; Buffalo; single-parent; NY; households; 5-year; and USA.

The percentage of births to unmarried women in the United States has more than doubled since 1980, reaching 40 percent in 2023. This significant shift in family structure reflects changing societal norms and demographic trends over the past four decades. The rise in births outside of marriage has implications for family dynamics, social support systems, and public policy. Age and ethnicity factors in birth rates While the overall percentage of births to unmarried women has stabilized around 40 percent in recent years, birth rates vary significantly across age groups and ethnicities. Unsurprisingly, in 2023, women between 20 and 34 years old had the highest birth rate at 83 births per 1,000 women, while teenagers aged 15 to 19 had the lowest rate at 8 births per 1,000 women. Additionally, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women had the highest fertility rate among all race/ethnicities in 2022, with approximately 2,237.5 births per 1,000 women, compared to the national average of 1,656.5 births per 1,000 women. Changing household structures The increase in births to unmarried women has contributed to evolving household structures in the United States. In 2023, there were approximately 15.18 million families with a single mother, a significant increase from previous decades. This trend aligns with the overall rise in births outside of marriage and suggests a growing need for support systems and policies that address the unique challenges faced by single-parent households.