Two Out of Three Kids in America Are Living With Both Parents

Two out of three chil­dren in Amer­i­ca are liv­ing in a mar­ried-cou­ple house­hold, accord­ing to 2016 data — the most recent on record. Although this sta­tis­tic has declined over time, it has increased slight­ly and sta­bi­lized in recent years.

Par­ents play impor­tant roles in a child’s devel­op­ment. Kids grow­ing up in house­holds with two par­ents in a low-con­flict mar­riage tend to have bet­ter health, greater access to health care and few­er emo­tion­al or behav­ioral problems.

Nation­wide, 33% of kids — 24.4 mil­lion chil­dren total — live with their moth­er (25%) or father (8%). Among chil­dren resid­ing with unmar­ried par­ents, one in four kids live with a par­ent and their cohab­it­ing partner.

At the state lev­el, kids in Utah are the most like­ly to live in a mar­ried-cou­ple house­hold (82%) while kids in Louisiana and Mis­sis­sip­pi are most like­ly to live in a sin­gle-par­ent house­hold (both at 56%).Kids who live in a mar­ried-cou­ple house­hold are more like­ly to have access to resources that allow them to thrive. The pover­ty rate for mar­ried-cou­ple fam­i­lies is almost five times low­er than it is for a sin­gle-par­ent fam­i­ly (7% vs. 32%), accord­ing to the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter.

Access Fam­i­ly and Com­mu­ni­ty data on the KIDS COUNT Data Center:

• Chil­dren in sin­gle-par­ent families
• Chil­dren liv­ing with cohab­it­ing domes­tic partners
• Chil­dren in the care of grandparents
• Child pop­u­la­tion by house­hold type