Thomas
F. Coleman
Los Angeles, California
Executive Director
American Association for Single People
General Remarks:
According to Census Bureau reports that are more
current than the document issued by the Census Bureau today (April 13, 2001), there are
over 20 million children -- more than 27 percent of young people in the nation -- who now
live in a single-parent household. Single parent households have become a permanent
part of the ever-increasing diversification of America's families.
Single parents should not be stereotyped as one generic class of people. Some have
never married, while others are single through divorce or the death of a spouse.
While most single-parent homes are headed by women, there are a growing number of men who
are raising children on their own. In fact, the number of single dads grew 25
percent between 1995 and 1998, from 1.7 million to 2.1 million, while single mothers
remained constant at about 9.8 million.
Political leaders and corporate officials should do
more to respond to the needs of single parents, while at the same time addressing the
needs of people without children. Public and corporate policies should be balanced and
fair. The private choices of adults, to be single, to marry, or to divorce, as well
as their choices to have children or not, should be respected. |
Comments on the New Report: "Living Arrangements of
Children: 1996"
Several facts from this new census report highlight the
significant role that people other than biological-married-couple parents play in raising
the nation's children:
There are 71,494,000 children in the nation. About 40 million of these children are
living in what the Census Bureau labels a "traditional nuclear family" -- a
household in which biological parents who are still married to each other live with the
child. This means that some 44 percent of the nation's children are NOT living in a
traditional nuclear family. The result is that more than 32 million children are
living in a so-called "nontraditional family"
According to this new report, in 1996 there were 18,165,000 children living in a
single-parent family. More recent data from the Census Bureau, the Current Population
Survey for 1998, shows that there were 19,777,000 children then living in a single-parent
family. That's more than 27% of children in the nation.
When these two reports are contrasted, we see that in
just two years, the number of children in single parent families rose by more than 1.5
million. Single parent families are here to stay.
Grandparents, many of whom are divorced or widowed, are playing a significant role in
helping to raise the nation's youth. This new report for 1996 shows 1,266,000 children
living with their grandparents and without their parents. But that is only the tip of the
three-generational iceberg. In 1998, there were nearly 4 million children living in the
homes of their grandparents (3,989,000). In 1.4 million of these homes, the child's parent
was not present. Again, this shows a significant increase in grandparents actually raising
grandkids. In another 2 million of these situations, the grandparent was helping a single
parent to raise the kids in the grandparent's home.
The new 1996 report tells only half of the "family diversity" story, because it
only looks at how children are being raised. It says nothing about households without
children, which are the majority of households in the nation. For example, in 1999, only
about 35% of the nation's households contained children under 18 years old. There are more
one-person households in the nation than households containing married couples with
children.
From a national perspective, our homes are a mosaic of family diversity. Of the
total of about 104 million households in 1999, here is how the composition looks:
* married with children (not necessarily the Bundy's) = 24.1%
* married without children = 28.6%
* one-person = 25.6%
* single parent = 9.2%
* adult blood relatives = 6.9%
* unmarried couples = 4.3%
* other = 1.3%
The diversity of our households, and the many variations in parenting, have implications
for public polices and corporate programs. With 82 million unmarried adults who make
up 40% of the nation's full-time workforce, public policies and private sector programs
need to be reviewed.
Good policies are grounded in reality and honest
conversations, both of which are essential components of informed decision making.
Let the conversation about unmarried America begin.
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