{"id":13907,"date":"2014-12-22T12:08:26","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T17:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/less-than-half-of-u-s-kids-today-live-in-a-traditional-family\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:21:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:21:11","slug":"less-than-half-of-u-s-kids-today-live-in-a-traditional-family","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/12\/22\/less-than-half-of-u-s-kids-today-live-in-a-traditional-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Fewer than half of U.S. kids today live in a \u2018traditional\u2019 family"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/12\/FT_Family_Photo.jpg\"><img data-dominant-color=\"6e4838\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #6e4838;\" decoding=\"async\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" class=\"wp-image-25710 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/12\/FT_Family_Photo.jpg\" alt=\"Less than half of U.S. kids today live in a \u2018traditional\u2019 family \" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fewer\u00a0than half (46%) of U.S. kids younger than 18 years of age are living in a home with two married heterosexual parents in their first marriage. This is a marked change from 1960, when 73% of children fit this description, and 1980, when 61% did, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of recently released American Community Survey (ACS) and Decennial Census data.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/12\/FT_Family_Changes.png\"><img data-dominant-color=\"ebede6\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #ebede6;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"310\" height=\"699\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/12\/FT_Family_Changes.png?resize=310,699 310w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" class=\"wp-image-25705 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/12\/FT_Family_Changes.png\" alt=\"Less than half of U.S. kids today live in a \u2018traditional\u2019 family \" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rapid changes in American family structure have altered the image of who&#8217;s gathering for the holidays. While the old \u201cideal\u201d involved couples marrying young, then starting a family, and staying married till \u201cdeath do they part,\u201d the family has become more complex, and less \u201ctraditional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Americans are delaying marriage, and <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2014\/09\/24\/record-share-of-americans-have-never-married\/\">more may be foregoing the institution<\/a> altogether. At the same time, the share of children born outside of marriage <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/08\/13\/birth-rate-for-unmarried-women-declining-for-first-time-in-decades\/\">now stands<\/a> at 41%, <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2010\/11\/18\/the-decline-of-marriage-and-rise-of-new-families\/\">up from just 5% in 1960<\/a>. While debate continues as to whether divorce rates have been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/wonkblog\/wp\/2014\/03\/27\/divorce-is-actually-on-the-rise-and-its-the-baby-boomers-fault\/\">rising<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/12\/02\/upshot\/the-divorce-surge-is-over-but-the-myth-lives-on.html?_r=0\">falling<\/a> in recent decades, it\u2019s clear that in the longer term, the share of people who have been previously married is rising, as is <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2014\/11\/14\/four-in-ten-couples-are-saying-i-do-again\/\">remarriage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to our analysis, today 15% of children are living with two parents who are in a remarriage. It is difficult to accurately identify stepchildren in the ACS data, so we don\u2019t know for sure if these kids are from another union, or were born within the remarriage. However, data from another Census source\u2014the 2013 Current Population Survey (CPS)\u2014indicates that 6% of all children are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/hhes\/families\/data\/cps2013C.html\">living with a stepparent<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--more-->One of the largest shifts in family structure is this: 34% of children today are living with an unmarried parent\u2014up from just 9% in 1960, and 19% in 1980. In most cases, these unmarried parents are single. However, a small share of all children\u20144%\u2014are living with two cohabiting parents, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/hhes\/families\/data\/cps2013C.html\">according to CPS data<\/a>. Because of <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/09\/22\/census-confirms-more-data-problems-in-sorting-out-the-number-of-u-s-gay-marriages\/\">concerns<\/a> about the quality of the new 2013 ACS data on same-sex marriage, we do not separate out the very small number of children whose parents are identified as in this type of union, but instead fold them into this \u201csingle parent\u201d category.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The remaining 5% of children are not living with either parent. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/hhes\/families\/data\/cps2013C.html\">most of these cases<\/a>, they are <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2013\/09\/04\/at-grandmothers-house-we-stay\/\">living with a grandparent<\/a>\u2014a phenomenon that has become much more prevalent since the recent economic recession.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just 46% of U.S. kids under 18 are living in a home with two married heterosexual parents in their first marriage, a marked change from 1960.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713063826","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[223,228],"bylines":[965],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[519],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13907","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-marriage-divorce","category-parenthood","bylines-gretchen-livingston","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":"Short 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