The 25 cities with the most single parents | Nation - Clearfield Progress

Intro

Photo Credit: Andy Dean Photography / Alamy Stock Photo

As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child,” but not necessarily a married couple. In the U.S., the number of single-parent households is on the rise. In 1950, there were just 1.5 million single-parent families. As of 2017, that number climbed to 10.6 million and now represents a larger share of families with children under 18 than at nearly any other time in recent history.

This long-term trend can be attributed to a variety of factors including higher rates of divorce, remarriage, and cohabitation. However, most notable is the order-of-magnitude increase in nonmarital childbearing, which now accounts for roughly 40 percent of births in the U.S.

These statistics will likely come as a surprise to those who still cling to a more traditional view of family life. The reality is that the parents of today, whether or not by choice, are raising their children under an increasingly diverse—and often changing—set of circumstances.

In order to better understand the economic characteristics and geographic diversity of these single-parent households, researchers at Haven Life, an online term life insurance agency, analyzed data from the 2017 American Community Survey. For this analysis, its researchers defined a single-parent household as any family home with children under 18 that was headed by an unmarried mother or father. Here’s what they found:

Cities with the most single parents

Single parenting in America’s 25 largest cities

In conclusion

Beyond the obvious hurdles that one might expect to face as a lone parent, this data paints a more extensive portrait of the economic challenges common among many single-parent households. Between generally lower household incomes, higher unemployment rates, and fewer resources to handle everyday tasks, single parents can easily become stretched for both time and money. This is why it is even more important for single parents to create a financial plan for their family if possible. For inspiration and additional information, see Haven Life’s financial responsibility checklist for new parents.

Methodology

Family percentiles for single parents, single mothers and single fathers were derived from the 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates summary statistics. These percentiles were calculated as fractions of all families with children under the age of 18 for their respective cities. Statistics reported in the Takeaways section were computed from the raw sample weights of the PUMS dataset for the 2017 ACS 1-Year Estimates, unless otherwise noted. Only cities with more than 100,000 individuals were considered in the analysis.

Haven Life Insurance Agency LLC (Haven Life) conducted this research for educational/informational purposes only. Haven Life is an online life insurance agency offering term life insurance issued by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. Haven Life does not provide tax, legal, investment, or housing/real estate advice, and the information in the study should not be relied on as such. You should consult your own tax, legal, investment, and other advisors, as appropriate, before engaging in any transaction.

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