---
title: "5 facts about the modern American family"
description: "In 1960, 37% of households included a married couple raising their own children. More than a half-century later, just 16% of households look like that."
date: "2014-04-30"
authors:
  - name: "Jens Manuel Krogstad"
    job_title: "Former Senior Writer and Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/jens-manuel-krogstad/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/04/30/5-facts-about-the-modern-american-family/"
categories:
  - "Birth Rate & Fertility"
  - "Family & Relationships"
  - "Fertility"
  - "Household Structure & Family Roles"
  - "Intermarriage"
  - "Marriage & Divorce"
  - "Racial Intermarriage"
---

# 5 facts about the modern American family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OQCxgNjbq8&feature=youtu.be

The classic nuclear family, the kind imprinted on the American imagination by TV shows like *Leave It To Beaver*, has been left behind. In 1960, 37% of households included a married couple raising their own children. More than a half-century later, just 16% of households look like that.

Here are 5 facts about the modern family:

**Americans are putting off life’s big milestones.** Today, the median age at first marriage is 29 for men and 27 for women—[the highest in modern history](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/3/). (In 2013, more than one-in-four (26%) of people ages 18 to 32 were married. But in 1960, well over half (65%) of Americans were.) Mothers are also waiting longer to have children. In 1960, women ages 15 to 24 accounted for 40% of mothers with infants. By 2011, that number had dropped to 22%.

** Today, an American woman, on average, is expected to have 1.9 children, **compared with a total fertility rate of 3.7 children in 1960. Current levels are below the [“replacement rate” of about 2.1 children](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/opinion/sunday/bye-bye-baby.html?_r=0), the number of births needed for children to replace their parents in the population. Some European countries have [lower total fertility rates](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/04/11/birth-rates-lag-in-europe-and-the-u-s-but-the-desire-for-kids-does-not/).

**Some 3 million (37% of) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults** **have had a child at some point in their lives, **according to the [Williams Institute](http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/LGBT-Parenting.pdf). Among women under the age of 50 who identify as LGBT (and live alone or with a spouse/partner), about half (48%) have a child younger than 18. Some one-in-five LGBT men say the same.

** **

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/08/SDT-racial-relations-08-2013-03-10.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/08/22/chapter-3-demographic-economic-data-by-race/)

Families today are more blended and differently constructed. Nearly half (44%) of young people ages 18 to 29 [have a step sibling](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2011/01/13/a-portrait-of-stepfamilies/). About half as many (23%) of those ages 50 to 64—and just 16% of those 65 or older—have a step sibling. **More babies are born to unmarried mothers than ever before.** Unmarried women accounted for [41% of births in 2011](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/08/22/chapter-3-demographic-economic-data-by-race/), up from just 5% in 1960. In 2011, 72% of births to black women were to unmarried mothers, compared with 53% of births to Hispanic women and 29% of births to white women. (The sample size was too small to analyze results among Asians.) But just [9% of new mothers with a bachelor’s degree](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/05/10/record-share-of-new-mothers-are-college-educated/), regardless of race, were unmarried when they gave birth.

**Intermarriage among people of different races is increasingly common. In 1980, just 7% of all marriages in the U.S. were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity. **In 2010, that share has doubled to [15% of all new marriages in the U.S.](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2012/02/16/the-rise-of-intermarriage/) Hispanics (26%) and Asians (28%) were most likely to “marry out,” compared with 9% of whites and 17% of blacks.