More Than Half of Black Youths Live With 1 Parent
More than half of the nation’s black children lived with only one parent in 1991, new Census Bureau data says.
The report shows that black children living with just one parent increased from 31.8% in 1970 to 45.8% in 1980 and 57.5% as of March, 1991. Of the 5.8 million black children living with one parent, 5.5 million reside with the mother, the report said.
The percentage of all American children living with two parents declined less sharply, from 85% in 1970 to 72% in 1991.
Sar Levitan of George Washington University said the trend is serious because one-parent families more often live in poverty.
The report also found that one-quarter of American adults have never married, and those who marry are doing so later.
The census counted 41 million never-married adults and noted that was nearly double the 21 million counted in 1970.
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