Four-Fifths on One-Parent Families in the United States Are Led by Women

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau finds that were 10.9 million one-parent family groups with a child under the age of 18 in 2022. Of these 80 percent were led by a woman parent. Among one-parent family groups, 41 percent of single fathers were never married and 38 percent were divorced, compared to 51 percent of single mothers who were never married and 29 percent who were divorced.

The data shows that less than one quarter (24 percent) of children under age 15 living in opposite-sex married-couple families had a stay-at-home mother. Only one percent had a stay-at-home father in 2022.

In 2022, the estimated median age to marry for the first time was 30.1 for men and 28.2 for women. In 1947 the median age to marry for the first time was 23.7 for men and 20.5 for women.