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.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Mobile County, AL (S1101SPHOUSE001097) from 2009 to 2023 about Mobile County, AL; Mobile; single-parent; AL; households; 5-year; and USA.

Full Description Children are all persons under the age of 18 years. 'Own children' in a family are sons and daughters, including stepchildren and adopted children, of the householder. 'Single-parent family' means only one parent is present in the home, and is never-married, widowed, divorced, or married, spouse absent. This data originates from the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year estimates, table B11003. The ACS collects these data from a sample of households on a rolling monthly basis. ACS aggregates samples into one-, three-, or five-year periods.

Single-parent Families reports the percent of families with children that are headed by a single parent, per race/ethnicity of the householder. Dimensions Year;Measure.Type;Variable Full Description Children are all persons under the age of 18 years, living in families, and related as children by birth, marriage, or adoption to the householder. Children living with married step-parents are not included. Single-parent families may include unmarried couples. This data originates from the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year estimates, table B11003. The ACS collects these data from a sample of households on a rolling monthly basis. ACS aggregates samples into one-, three-, or five-year periods. At this time only state-level annual data are available on CTdata.org. Town-level data aggregated from the five-year datasets (considered to be more accurate for geographic areas that are the size of a county or smaller) can be produced using Census tables currently available on the Census website.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in St. Louis city, MO (S1101SPHOUSE029510) from 2009 to 2023 about St. Louis City, MO; single-parent; St. Louis; MO; 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 Cook County, IL (S1101SPHOUSE017031) from 2009 to 2023 about Cook County, IL; single-parent; Chicago; IL; households; 5-year; and USA.

In 2020, one-person households accounted for around 38 percent of the total number of private households in Japan, while more than half of the total households were made up of nuclear families. The number of one-person households has increased over the past two decades.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Orleans Parish, LA (S1101SPHOUSE022071) from 2009 to 2023 about Orleans Parish, LA; New Orleans; single-parent; LA; households; 5-year; and USA.

This graph shows the top 25 cities in the United States with a household number of 100,000 or more that had the highest percentage of one-person households in 2019 In 2019, about 46.81 percent of all households in New Orleans, Louisiana were one-person households.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Franklin County, OH (S1101SPHOUSE039049) from 2009 to 2023 about Franklin County, OH; single-parent; Columbus; OH; households; 5-year; and USA.

In 2024, there were around 15.72 million families with a female householder and no spouse present in the United States, an increase from the previous year. You can get an overview on the total number of households in the U.S. here.

The most common type of household in Sweden in 2023 was the single-person household without children, which amounted to more than two million. The second most common household type was cohabiting or married couples living without children. The number of households in Sweden in 2023 amounted to nearly 4.9 million. Different age distribution for men and women in single-person households The age distribution for single-person households in Sweden looks very different between men and women. The most common age for people living in single-person households among women was from 75 to 84 years, followed by the age group 65 to 74 years. The highest number of single-person households among men was found among men from 25 to 34 years. Increasing number of single-person households The number of single-person households increased annually from 2012 to 2022. Within this time period, the number of single-person households grew from around 1.7 million, up to over two million.

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 Milwaukee County, WI (S1101SPHOUSE055079) from 2009 to 2023 about Milwaukee County, WI; Milwaukee; 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 Philadelphia County, PA (S1101SPHOUSE042101) from 2009 to 2023 about Philadelphia County/City, PA; single-parent; Philadelphia; PA; 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 New York County, NY (S1101SPHOUSE036061) from 2009 to 2023 about New York County, NY; single-parent; New York; NY; households; 5-year; and USA.

In 2023, there were about 6.65 million white, non-Hispanic families with a single mother living in the United States. This is a slight increase from 1990, when there were 6.4 million white families with a single mother living in the U.S.

Graph and download economic data for Single-Parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children (5-year estimate) in Shelby County, TN (S1101SPHOUSE047157) from 2009 to 2023 about Shelby County, TN; Memphis; single-parent; TN; households; 5-year; and USA.

In 2023, there were more than 373,400 single-parent households in Spain. Of these, 312,900 were female-led households, representing nearly 84 percent of all single-parent households in the country.