Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Single-parent households & Poverty


Real Time Economics
Economic insight and analysis from The Wall Street Journal.

About Half of Kids With Single Moms Live in Poverty

Children raised in single-parent households in the U.S. are far more likely to live in poverty than children with both parents present, according to Census figures released Monday. As a result, far more black and Hispanic children are raised in poverty than white kids.
Bloomberg News
Among all children living only with their mother, nearly half — or 45% — live below the poverty line, the Census Bureau said. For those living with just the father, about 21% lived in poverty. By comparison, only about 13% of children with both parents present in the household live below the poverty line.
The latest data, offering a broad snapshot of America’s households, is the latest to show that children of single parents often have a rougher time financially than those with both parents, a scenario encountered far more by blacks and Hispanics than by whites. About 55% of black children and 31% of Hispanic children live with one parent, compared to 20% of white children and 13% of Asian children.

Other new data released in the report:
– One in four women raising children are doing it on their own. Women are far more likely to be single parents than men, the figures show. Two-thirds, or 67%, of mothers living with their children have a spouse present, compared with 86% of fathers living with their children. One in four mothers with a child under age 18 has no partner present, compared with 6% of fathers.

– The share of so-called family households — in which at least two occupants are related by blood, marriage or adoption — has fallen sharply in recent decades. This year, roughly two-thirds, or 66%, of households were family households, down from 81% in 1970.

–The share of households that are married couples with children has declined by about half, to 19% this year versus 40% in 1970.

– Households also are becoming smaller. On average, 2.5 people share a household currently, compared to 3.1 people in 1970. That’s in part because families are having fewer children. Average children per family fell to 0.9 from 1.3 during that period.
WSJ

No comments: