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.
In 2022, there were over *** million single mothers in Germany, compared to ******* single fathers. This statistic shows the number of single parents in Germany from 2000 to 2023, by gender.
This graph presents the percentage of single-parent families with children under 18 years of age in France from 1990 to 2020. It appears that the share of single-parents families went from 12.4 percent in 1990 to 24.7 percent in 2020.
In 2024, the total number of single parent families in Canada increased by 0.03 million families (+1.66 percent) compared to 2023. With 1.84 million families, the total number thereby reached its highest value in the observed period.
This graph shows the Percentage of households led by a female householder with no spouse present with own children under 18 years living in the household in the U.S. in 2021, by state. In 2021, about 4.24 percent of Californian households were single mother households with at least one child.
Additional information on single mother households and poverty in the United States
For most single mothers a constant battle persists between finding the time and energy to raise their children and the demands of working to supply an income to house and feed their families. The pressures of a single income and the high costs of childcare mean that the risk of poverty for these families is a tragic reality. Comparison of the overall United States poverty rate since 1990 with that of the poverty rate for families with a female householder shows that poverty is much more prevalent in the latter. In 2021, while the overall rate was at 11.6 percent, the rate of poverty for single mother families was 23 percent. Moreover, the degree of fluctuation tends to be lower for single female household families, suggesting the rate of poverty for these groups is less affected by economic conditions.
The sharp rise in the number of children living with a single mother or single father in the United States from 1970 to 2022 suggests more must be done to ensure that families in such situations are able to avoid poverty. Moreover, attention should also be placed on overall racial income inequality given the higher rate of poverty for Hispanic single mother families than their white or Asian counterparts.
There are over **** million single parent families in the United Kingdom as of 2023, compared with **** million in 2022.
In 2023, there were around 15.18 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.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
SCA47 - Children Living in a Single Parent Family Unit. Published by Central Statistics Office. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0).Children Living in a Single Parent Family Unit...
Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Single Parents of America
Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Single Parent Advocate
Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Single Parents in Need Nationally
Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Single Parent Support Inc.
Open Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
Dataset population: Lone-parent households with dependent children where the lone parent is aged 16 to 74
Lone-parent households with dependent children where the lone parent is aged 16 to 74
In most tables, the term 'lone-parent household' is used to describe a household that comprises a lone parent family and no other person. In the alternative household type variable, a lone-parent household is defined as a household that contains at least one lone-parent family but does not contain any married, same-sex civil partnership or cohabiting couples.
A count of the dependent children living in a household. A dependent child is a person aged 0 to 15 in a household (whether or not in a family) or aged 16 to 18 in full-time education and living in a family with his or her parent(s) or grandparent(s). It does not include any children who have a spouse, partner or child living in the household.
Sex
The classification of a person as either male or female.
https://data.gov.tw/licensehttps://data.gov.tw/license
Number of single-parent household residents.......
This statistic depicts the number of single parent social security cases in Hong Kong from 2013 to 2023. In 2023, there were around ****** single parent social security cases in Hong Kong.
Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Single Parent Fuel
Open Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
Dataset population: Households
Lone-parent households with dependent children where the lone parent is aged 16 to 74
In most tables, the term 'lone-parent household' is used to describe a household that comprises a lone parent family and no other person. In the alternative household type variable, a lone-parent household is defined as a household that contains at least one lone-parent family but does not contain any married, same-sex civil partnership or cohabiting couples.
A count of the dependent children living in a household. A dependent child is a person aged 0 to 15 in a household (whether or not in a family) or aged 16 to 18 in full-time education and living in a family with his or her parent(s) or grandparent(s). It does not include any children who have a spouse, partner or child living in the household.
In 2023, there were about **** million single-parent households in South Korea. Single-parent households accounted for about *** percent of total households in South Korea that year.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
Australia Number of Households: One Family: One Parent with Dependent Children data was reported at 590.600 Unit th in 2020. This records an increase from the previous number of 492.500 Unit th for 2018. Australia Number of Households: One Family: One Parent with Dependent Children data is updated yearly, averaging 526.600 Unit th from Jun 2001 (Median) to 2020, with 11 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 590.600 Unit th in 2020 and a record low of 492.500 Unit th in 2018. Australia Number of Households: One Family: One Parent with Dependent Children data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.H034: Survey of Income and Housing: Number of Household: by Family Composition.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
Population Aged 15 Years and Over in Private Households Enumerated as Couples or Single Parents 2011 to 2016 (Number) by Sex, Type of Family Unit, CensusYear and Principal Economic Status
View data using web pages
Download .px file (Software required)
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.