The Modern American Family
Key trends in marriage and family life in the United States.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Key trends in marriage and family life in the United States.
Americans are more pessimistic than optimistic about the institution of marriage and the family. At the same time, the public is fairly accepting of diverse family arrangements, though some are seen as more acceptable than others.
Adults – particularly men – who are in same-sex marriages have a somewhat different demographic profile from adults in opposite-sex marriages.
45% of Americans don’t think it makes a difference that there is growing variety in the types of family arrangements people live in.
At this year’s annual meeting of the Population Association of America, the nation’s largest demography conference, researchers explored some long-studied topics from new perspectives.
Americans’ views toward those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) have changed substantially in recent years.
The nation’s largest annual demography conference, the Population Association of America meeting, featured new research on topics including couples who live in separate homes, children of multiracial couples, transgender Americans, immigration law enforcement and how climate change affects migration.
The new approach reflects the bureau’s evolving policy on reporting household relationships, as it tries to keep pace with social change.
The Census Bureau last week released a new estimate of the number of U.S. same-sex married couples that is 38% higher than the bureau’s 2012 estimate, but agency officials note that the estimates are likely inaccurate.
Same-sex marriage is now legal in Washington, D.C., and 17 states (and Arkansas will join them, if a lower-court judge’s ruling last week is upheld). Now the federal government’s task is to produce an accurate count of same-sex married couples.
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