The Modern American Family
Key trends in marriage and family life in the United States.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Parenthood
The Experiences of U.S. Adults Who Don’t Have Children
Some 57% of adults under 50 who say they are unlikely to have kids say a major reason is they just don’t want to. Among those ages 50 and older, 31% cite this as a reason.
Among parents with young adult children, some dads feel less connected to their kids than moms do
Majorities of both moms and dads with a young adult child age 18 to 34 say they’re as involved in their child’s day-to-day life as they’d like to be.
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A third of U.S. adults say they have used fertility treatments or know someone who has
Forty years after the birth of the first baby conceived via in vitro fertilization, 33% of Americans say they or someone they know has undergone fertility treatment.
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U.S. women are postponing motherhood, but not as much as those in most other developed nations
American women are waiting longer to have children than in the past, but they are still starting their families sooner than women in many other developed nations.
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Family life is changing in different ways across urban, suburban and rural communities in the U.S.
Changes in marriage and childbearing have reshaped the American family. These shifts are playing out somewhat differently across urban, suburban and rural counties.
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More than a million Millennials are becoming moms each year
In all, more than 17 million Millennial women in the U.S. have become mothers. In 2016, Millennial women accounted for 82% of U.S. births.
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About one-third of U.S. children are living with an unmarried parent
The share of U.S. children living with an unmarried parent has more than doubled since 1968, jumping from 13% to 32% in 2017.
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The Changing Profile of Unmarried Parents
One-in-four parents living with a child in the United States today are unmarried, up from 7% in 1968. A growing share of unmarried parents are cohabiting partners.
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They’re Waiting Longer, but U.S. Women Today More Likely to Have Children Than a Decade Ago
The share of U.S. women at the end of their childbearing years who have ever given birth was higher in 2016 than it had been 10 years earlier.
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Most dads say they spend too little time with their children; about a quarter live apart from them
U.S. fathers today are spending more time caring for their children than they did a half-century ago. Moms, by comparison, still do more of the child care and are more likely than dads to say they are satisfied with the amount of time they spend with their kids.
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10 things we learned about gender issues in the U.S. in 2017
Allegations about sexual misconduct by prominent men in politics, entertainment, media and other industries have reverberated across the United States in recent months, drawing attention to issues of gender equality in the workplace and in broader American society.
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Most Americans see value in steering children toward toys, activities associated with opposite gender
More Americans say it’s good to steer girls toward boy-oriented toys and activities than say boys should be encouraged to play with girl-oriented toys.
