Marriage/Family

HOUSEHOLD AND FAMILY STRUCTURE

Household Types, 1990-2000
	1990		2000
	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
Total Households	91,947,410	100.0%	105,480,101	100.0%
Married Couple	50,708,322	55.1%	54,493,232	51.7%
With Children*	23,494,726	25.6%	24,835,505	23.5%
Without Children*	27,213,596	29.6%	29,657,727	28.1%
Female-Headed	10,666,043	11.6%	12,900,103	12.2%
With Children*	6,028,409	6.6%	7,561,874	7.2%
Without Children*	4,637,634	5.0%	5,338,229	5.1%
Male-Headed	3,143,582	3.4%	4,394,012	4.2%
With Children*	1,354,540	1.5%	2,190,989	2.1%
Without Children*	1,789,042	1.9%	2,203,023	2.1%
Non-Family	27,429,463	29.8%	33,692,754	31.9%
Householder Living Alone	22,580,420	24.6%	27,230,075	25.8%
Two or More Persons	4,849,043	5.3%	6,462,679	6.1%

* For the purposes of this table, "children" are people under age 18.

Source: Census 2000 analyzed by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN).

http://www.censusscope.org/

http://www.ssdan.net/

Percentage of All Births to Unmarried Women by Mother's Age Group, 1980-98

Age of mother	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998

All ages	18.4	18.9	19.4	20.3	21.0	22.0	23.4	24.5	25.7	27.1	28.0	29.5	30.1	31.0	32.6	32.2	32.4	32.4	32.8
Age group
Under age 15	88.7	89.2	89.2	90.4	91.1	91.8	92.5	92.9	93.6	92.4	91.6	91.3	91.3	91.3	94.5	93.5	93.8	95.7	96.6
Ages 15-17	61.5	63.3	65.0	67.5	69.2	70.9	73.3	75.8	77.1	77.7	77.7	78.7	79.2	79.9	84.1	83.7	84.4	86.7	87.5
Ages 18-19	39.8	41.4	43.0	45.7	48.1	50.7	53.6	56.0	58.5	60.4	61.3	63.2	64.6	66.1	70.0	69.8	70.8	72.5	73.6
Ages 20-24	19.3	20.4	21.4	22.9	24.5	26.3	28.7	30.8	32.9	35.1	36.9	39.4	40.7	42.2	44.9	44.7	45.6	46.6	47.7
Ages 25-29	9.0	9.7	10.3	11.0	11.8	12.7	13.8	14.7	15.8	17.1	18.0	19.2	19.8	20.7	21.8	21.5	22.0	22.0	22.5
Ages 30-34	7.4	7.8	8.2	8.6	9.0	9.7	10.4	11.1	11.8	12.6	13.3	14.0	14.3	14.7	15.1	14.7	14.8	14.1	14.0
Ages 35-39	9.4	9.8	9.8	10.1	10.7	11.2	11.7	12.2	12.8	13.3	13.9	14.6	15.2	15.6	16.1	15.7	15.7	14.6	14.4
Ages 40 and older	12.1	12.7	13.4	13.4	13.8	14.0	14.8	15.2	15.6	15.9	17.0	17.4	17.7	18.1	18.7	18.1	18.4	17.1	16.7

SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. Ventura, S.J. (1995). Births to unmarried mothers: United States, 1980-92. Vital and Health Statistics, Series 21 (53). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Ventura, S.J., Martin,J.A., Curtin, S.C., Mathews, T.J., and Park, M.M. (2000). Births: Final data for 1998. National Vital Statistics Reports, 48 (3). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. SOURCE: http://www.censusscope.org

The following works are available from my personal collection to students who wish to read further about a particular topic or make a class presentation for extra credit.

The Family in the Western World: From the Black Death to the Industrial Age. Beatrice Gottlieb. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. 309 pages.

Women Without Children: The Reasons, The Rewards, The Regrets, by Susan S. Lang. NY: Pharos Books, 1991, 278 Pages.

Barren in the Promised Land: Childless Americans and the Pursuit of Happiness. Elaine Tyler May. First Harvard University paperback edition, 1997. 318 pages.

Immaculate Contraception: The Extraordinary Story of Birth Control-from the First Fumblings to the Present Day. Emma Dickens. London: Robson Books, 2000. 222 pages.

Sociology of Marriage and the Family: Gender, Love, and Property, 5^th Edition. Randall Collins & Scott Coltrane. Belmont, CA.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001. 634 Pages.

A History of the Wife, by Marilyn Yalom. New York City: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. 440 Pages.

The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, by Stephanie Coontz. NY: Basic Books, 1992, 391 Pages.

The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued, by Ann Critterden. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2001, 323 Pages.

Are married people happier than unmarried people

Study involving over 24,000 people finds general life satisfaction affects attitude toward marital happiness

WASHINGTON -- In a large longitudinal study that sheds new light on the association between marital status and happiness, researchers have found that people get a boost in life satisfaction from marriage. But the increase in happiness is very small -- approximately one tenth of one point on an 11-point scale -- and is likely due to initial reactions to marriage and then a return to prior levels of happiness. Data from the 15-year study of over 24,000 individuals living in Germany also indicates that most people who get married and stayed married are more satisfied with their lives than their non-married peers long before the marriage occurred.

The results, published in the March issue of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, highlight how the process of adaptation plays a role in life satisfaction. Although people may initially react strongly to life events, evidence suggests that they eventually return to their normal levels of happiness. Even people who have won huge amounts of money or who have experienced debilitating injuries appear not to greatly differ in life satisfaction from the average person.

Psychologist and study lead author Richard E. Lucas, Ph.D., of Michigan State University says he and his colleagues found that most people were no more satisfied with life after marriage than they were prior to marriage. Widows and widowers were less satisfied with life after the death of their spouse than they were prior to marriage, but even they showed signs of adaptation and most eventually returned close to their initial life satisfaction levels.

An additional and unexpected finding of the study is that the most satisfied people reacted least positively to marriage and most negatively to divorce and widowhood. This finding shows the importance of the total circumstances of their life and not just their personality, according to the researchers.

"An event such as marriage or divorce does not have the same implications for all individuals. A person who is very satisfied with life probably has a rich social network and has less to gain from the companionship of marriage. On the other hand, the person who is lonely and, therefore, somewhat dissatisfied, can gain much by marrying. Similarly, the person who is very satisfied with his or her life because their marriage is wonderful has more to lose if their spouse dies," said the authors, who call this process "hedonic leveling" because it tends to equalize people's overall happiness levels.

Participants of the study involved people living in Germany who entered the study from 1984 through 1995. The sample consisted of nearly 12,000 residents of West Germany, over 4,000 foreigners living in West Germany, over 5,000 residents of East Germany, and over 3,000 immigrants to West Germany. The participants were asked how satisfied they were with their life in general, using a scale that ranged from 0 (totally unhappy) to 10 (totally happy). Their answers where then compared to their marital status, controlling for yearly changes in overall life satisfaction in Germany due to the fall of the Berlin Wall and other factors.

###

Article: "Reexaming Adaptation and the Set Point Model of Happiness: Reactions to Changes in Marital Status," Richard E. Lucas, Michigan State University, Andrew E. Clark, Departement et Laboratoire d'Economie Theorique et Appliquee, Yannis Georgellis, Brunel University, and Ed Diener, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 84, No. 3.

Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office or at http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/press_releases/march_2003/psp843527.html

Study authors Richard Lucas, Ph.D., and Ed Diener, Ph.D., are available for media interviews. Dr. Lucas can be reached by phone at 517-432-4360 or by email, lucasri@msu.edu. Dr. Diener can be reached at 217-333-4804 or by email, ediener@s.psych.uiuc.edu.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 155,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare. Complete Article in PDF Format: http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/press_releases/march_2003/psp843527.html

CHILDSTATS.GOV

The Official Web Site of the Federal Interagency on Child and Family Statistics

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2002

Infant Mortality Rate Drops, Children More Likely to Have A Working Parent, Be Read to, Report Says

Children in America are less likely to die during infancy than they were in previous years, less likely to smoke in 8th or 10th grade, and less likely to give birth during adolescence, according to the 6th annual report, Americas Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2002. The report also noted improvements in some of the economic security indicators: children are more likely to have at least one working parent and to have health insurance. Moreover, children from ages 3 to 5 are more likely to be read to daily by a family member.

The Americas Children report monitors the status of children in the United States and contains information on population and family characteristics. Most of the reports other indicators on the well-being of the countrys children either remain unchanged from the previous year or did not change in a statistically significant manner. Among them: the child poverty rate (16 percent in 2000), the percentage of children who were adequately immunized (76 percent in 2000), the number of 12th grade students who smoked daily (19 percent in 2001) and the number of 12th graders who said they drank 5 or more alcoholic beverages in a row in the last 2 weeks (30 percent in 2001). Although many indicators show no significant change from the previous year, they often illustrate a larger trend that took place over several years. For example, the number of 12th grade students who smoked daily has shown a downward trend since 1993.

Todays children are more diverse than in previous years. The number of Hispanic children has been growing faster in recent years than any other group, and the percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander children doubled between 1980 and 2000. In addition, the reports special feature noted that in 2001, 19 percent of American children lived with at least one parent who was foreign born.

Among the favorable trends for Americas children was a drop in the infant mortality rate. In 1999, there were 7.0 deaths for every thousand live births. By comparison, the infant mortality rate was 7.2 deaths per 1000 live births in both 1997 and 1998.

The drop in infant mortality is very encouraging, said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Infant mortality is a stubborn, resistant problem, so even a slight decline is a victory.

Dr. Alexander noted that Healthy People 2000, a series of national health objectives published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, set a goal for reducing the infant mortality rate to 7.0 per 1000 live births by the year 2000.

This means we have met the Healthy People 2000 goal a year early, Dr. Alexander said.

The report, compiled by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, presents a comprehensive look at critical areas of child well-being, including economic security, health status, behavior, social environment, and education.

According to the report, the infant mortality rate has trended downward since 1983. The mortality rate for children from ages 5 to 14 also declined in 1999. According to the report, among children ages 5 to 14, unintentional injuries were the leading cause of death, followed by cancer, birth defects, and homicides. Death rates for children from ages 1 to 4 and for 15 to 19 did not change significantly.

As in previous years, the report shows that most children82 percent overallare in very good or excellent health. However, children living in poverty are less likely than children in higher-income families to be in very good or excellent health. Nevertheless, the gap in health status by income narrowed over the past few years. In 1984, just over 60 percent of low-income children were in very good or excellent health, but by 2000 this number had risen to 70 percent. The improvement for higher-income children was less dramatic, going from 83 to 85 percent from 1984 to 2000.

"There's still more to be done," said Edward Sondik, Ph.D., Director of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "but we've improved the chances of our poorest children to share in the advances in health we've experienced as a nation."

Dr. Sondik noted that the adolescent birth rate also declined. In 2000, the adolescent birth rate was 27 per 1,000 young women ages 15 to 17. The 2000 rate was a record low for the nation, down from 29 per thousand in 1999.

This is extremely good news; children born to adolescent mothers are more likely to be of low birth weightand at risk of life long disabilitiesthan are children born to older mothers, Dr. Sondik said. Girls who give birth during adolescence are less likely to complete their education, which can limit their future employment prospects.

          The percentage of children having at least one parent working full time all year increased from 79 percent in 1999 to 80 percent in 2000. The report noted that this rise is part of a long-term, steady increase, up from 70 percent in 1980.
          Much of the increase in the percentage of children living with at least one parent employed full time all year was due to the increase in the percentage of children living with single mothers who are employed, which increased from 33 percent in 1993 to 50 percent in 2000, according to the report.
          For 2000, the proportion of children living in poverty did not change significantly from 1999, remaining at 16 percent. The child poverty rate reached a cyclical peak of 22 percent in 1993, then declined through 1999. The current poverty rate for children is at its lowest level since 1979.
          The report noted a decrease in the poverty rate for children living in female-householder families. In 1980, 51 percent of children in female householder families lived in poverty. By 2000, this figure had decreased to 40 percent.
          This change is even more pronounced for African American children, said Nancy Gordon, Associate Director for Demographic Programs at the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of African American children living in female-householder families in poverty remained roughly around 66 percent until 1993 and then declined over the 1993-2000 period to 49 percent in 2000.
          According to the report, the number of children living in households with child hunger dropped in 2000. In that year, more than half a million children (0.8 percent) lived in households with child hunger, down from 1.0 percent in 1998. The report explained that while some children experience hunger, many more live in food insecure householdshouseholds without continuous access to enough food to ensure an active and healthy life. In such households, adults may go hungry to allow their children to eat.
          In 2001, roughly 4.1 percent of all children lived in households in which at least one person experienced food insecurity with hunger, down from 4.7 percent in 1998. In addition, 13.9 percent of all children and 35.3 percent of children in poverty lived in households that were classified as food insecure, although the children themselves did not actually experience hunger.

The reports behavioral and social environment indicators show that daily cigarette smoking among 8th and 10th graders dropped significantly. In 2000, 7.4 percent of eighth graders smoked daily, as compared to 5.5 percent in 2001. The percentage of 10th graders who smoked dropped from 14 percent to 12 percent during that time period. The rate of smoking among 12th graders did not change significantly, at 21 percent in 2000, and 19 percent in 2001.
The reports educational trends show an increase in the proportion of children ages 3 to 5 who are read to by a family member every day in the last week, from 54 percent in 1999, to 58 percent in 2001.

Reading to young children helps them to acquire language, said Val Plisko, Ph.D, an Associate Commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics. Young children who are read to are also more likely to read well by the time they reach school age, and to score higher academically than are young children who are not read to by the time they reach school age.
The report noted that the percentages of children from ages 3 to 5 who were enrolled in early childhood education centers declined, from 60 percent in 1999 to 56 percent in 2001.

Like family reading, participation in an early childhood education program can provide preschoolers with skills and enrichment that can increase their chances of success in school, the report stated.

According to the report, the ethnic diversity of Americas children continues to increase. In 2000, 64 percent of U.S. children were white, non-Hispanic; 16 percent were Hispanic; 15 percent were black, non-Hispanic; 4 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander; and 1 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native.

The percentage of white, non-Hispanic children decreased from 74 percent in 1980 to 64 percent in 2000. During that time, the number of Hispanic children increased faster than that of any other racial and ethnic group, growing from 9 percent of the child population to 16 percent in 2000. The report projected that by 2020, more than 1 in 5 children will be of Hispanic origin. In contrast, the percentage of black, non-Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native children have been fairly stable during the period from 1980 to 2000.

The report also contains a special feature, Children of at Least One Foreign-Born Parent. The proportion of children living with at least one foreign-born parent increased from 15 percent in 1994 to 19 percent in 2001. In 2001, 15 percent of all children were native children living with at least one foreign-born parent, and another 4 percent of children were foreign-born children with at least one foreign-born parent.

As a result of language and cultural barriers confronting children and their parents, children with foreign-born parents may need additional resources both at school and at home to successfully progress in school and transition to adulthood, the report stated.

Members of the public may access the report at http://childstats.gov. While supplies last, members of the public also may obtain printed copies from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Information Center, 2070 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 450, Vienna, VA 22182, by calling 1-888-Ask HRSA (1-888-275-4772), or by e-mailing ask@hrsa.gov.

Abridged Summary of:

Racial-Ethnic and Gender Differences in Returns to Cohabitation and Marriage: Evidence from the Current Population Survey

Population Division
U.S. Bureau of the Census
Washington, D.C. 20233-8800

May 1999

Population Division Working Paper No. 35

Racial-Ethnic and Gender Differences in Returns to Cohabitation and Marriage: Evidence from the Current Population Survey

by Philip N. Cohen

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA).

This paper reports the research and analysis undertaken by Census Bureau Staff. It has undergone a more limited review than official Census Bureau publications. This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussions.

Using data on cohabitation from the 1995-1997 March Current Population Survey, the first three years in which the survey included "unmarried partner" as a relationship category, I measure the relationship between earnings and cohabitation as well as other marital statuses across racial-ethnic groups for men and women. Results show that among 25-54 year-old workers, black women have the largest cohabitation "premium" -- the earnings advantage over never-married workers -- more than three-times the premium for white women. Hispanic women have no cohabitation premium. White men have the largest marriage premium, and each other group except white women also has a significant marriage premium. There is a significant cohabitation benefit for white men, black men, and Hispanic men. Substantial differences in observed effects across groups suggest the need for models that are more complicated than previously used. Research into marital status effects on earnings is misleading when restricted to white men.

A large body of research documents the earnings advantage that married men enjoy over never-married men, the "marriage premium." Marital status is now a control variable in most earnings models, despite disagreements in the literature over whether the source of marital-status effects lies in productivity, selection, discrimination or other factors (Cornwell & Rupert 1997). Some analysts recently have included nonmarital cohabitation in earnings models, generally finding a somewhat smaller but still significant premium to cohabitation (Daniel 1992; Loh 1996). Almost all of this research has examined men's earnings exclusively, and most of it has not examined racial-ethnic groups separately. Using data from the March Current Population Survey, this paper asks the basic question: is there a cohabitation "premium" in wages observed in cross-section in the years 1994-1996, and if so, does this premium differ across gender as well as racial-ethnic groups?

Gender and racial-ethnic differences

The literature on the marriage premium has generally investigated marital effects on men's earnings, reflecting assumptions about both the labor market as well as marriage and family relationships. This is despite the fact that comparing premiums (or penalties) between men and women would be a useful tool for considering competing hypotheses about the mechanisms at work. For example, perhaps the decline in the productivity-enhancing aspects of marriage for white men (Loh 1996) is related to changes in married white women's labor force behavior or housework. Labor market and household behaviors of both partners provide evidence to help sort out these questions (Daniel 1992). I will consider effects for both men and women (but not couples) which might be instructive for future research.

In addition, research on the marriage premium has mostly considered white men. However, available evidence, including that presented by Loh (1996) suggests important differences by race and ethnicity. There has been considerable attention given to variation in marital behavior across race and ethnic groups (e.g., Casper & McLanahan 1995), race differences in the relationship between employment and family transitions (e.g., O'Connell 1990), and important differences in local marriage markets by race (Brien 1997). It seems that attention to wage effects across race and ethnicity might help explain some of the underlying processes in the marriage market or within couples that contribute to these differences. There is also evidence of diverse effects of employment on entry into marriage (South 1996). Manning and Smock (1995) find that employment increases cohabitors' chance of marrying among white men but not among white women, and for both Black men and women.

Evidence from cohabitation studies of other outcomes

Research on non-marital cohabitation has mostly concerned questions of union formation and quality (Brown & Booth 1996), fertility (Bachrach 1987; Manning & Landale 1996), and housework related questions (South & Spitze 1994). However, these studies offer implications for the question of a cohabitation effects on earnings, and for potential gender and racial-ethnic differences.

Connections between earnings and cohabitation are relevant to poor women and families, especially if joblessness is more of a deterrent to marriage than it is to cohabitation. Failing to consider cohabitation among households with lower incomes might lead to misunderstanding the role of income, welfare and union formation (Moffitt, Reville, & Winkler 1998). And if cohabitation effects earnings, this should be taken into account in the consideration of cohabitation's effect on poverty and related issues (Bauman 1997; Manning & Lichter 1996).

Some of the cohabitation research has concerned the extent to which cohabitation is similar to or different from marriage, and the evidence here compels attention to racial-ethnic differences, which has been neglected in much of the cohabitation literature (Brown & Booth 1996; Manning & Landale 1996). In terms of childbearing behavior, cohabitation more closely resembles marriage among Black women than among White women (Loomis & Landale 1994). Manning and Landale (1996) find that, for non-Hispanic White women, cohabitation looks more like a transition to marriage, which is not the case Black women. And for Puerto Rican women, cohabitation is more like marriage itself.¹ Most cohabitors do plan to marry, and those that do marry have marriages of quality similar to married couples (Brown & Booth 1996). The question of to what extent cohabiting relationships are like marriages is complicated by the different circumstances of cohabitation. In fact, the extent to which cohabitation on average appears to be somewhere in between dating and marriage on various indicators may be because cohabiting relationships are split between those that are much like marriage, and those that are very little like marriage.

CONCLUSIONS

This analysis is not structured to concretely test competing hypotheses regarding cohabitation and marriage effects on earnings. Such questions are best addressed by longitudinal studies of the kind reviewed above. However, previous work has not adequately addressed racial-ethnic and gender differences in this area. This study clearly suggests the need for greater attention to these differences in future research.

Consistent with most previous research on men, on average cohabitation appears to fall somewhere between married and never married in most of these results. Unresolved is the extent to which this reflects a truly middle-ground nature to the relationship versus the combination of some relationships that are and some that are not like marriages. The tendency for cohabitation to fall between marriage and never-married raises questions about discrimination as a mechanism for the effect, since being single is usually less of a taboo than living with an unmarried partner.

For white men and women, the effects of cohabitation and marriage in the results here are most consistent with previous research, which is not surprising because most of this research has focused mostly or exclusively on white couples. Although both white and black women have cohabitation premiums net of other factors, black women's effects are much stronger than white women's. Hispanic women, unlike the other two groups, have a marriage premium only. The racial-ethnic differences here demonstrate the need for broader consideration of these effects. Clearly, analysis of whites alone should not be considered generalizable given these results.

The fact that black men and women both have marriage and cohabitation premiums has implications for inequality among black workers, especially given lower black marriage rates. The apparent mutual selection of higher-earning black men and women would contribute to increases in family-level income inequality. That is, at the same time that marriage rates are low, those with higher wages are more likely to be married or cohabiting together. This has implications for inequality among children in different types of families as well. The high cohabitation premium for black women also might suggest that black couples are less likely to marry when women are earning more, creating a hurdle between the formation of cohabiting unions and marriage. That is, black women's earnings might be more of an obstacle to marriage than they are to forming a cohabiting union.

The greater marriage effects for white and black men are consistent with previous research that more successful men are more likely to marry versus remain in cohabiting relationships, although that cannot be tested in this cross-sectional study. For women, only among white women is there evidence here that never married women earn more. With this data we cannot tell if marriage hinders white women's earning potential, or if white men women with higher earning potential or ambition are not marrying in the first place. These differences offer a caution against generalizing across racial-ethnic groups on this question.

¹ Care should be taken when considering Latino groups of different origins. Oropesa (1996) finds that attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation vary among Latino groups, as well as between Latinos and non-Latino Whites.

² White and Black are non-Hispanic; Hispanics may be of any race. Respondents who are not members of these groups are excluded because as a whole they are heterogeneous and thus not suited to combining, and because as subgroups their numbers in the CPS are too small to be reliable.

³ It should be noted that cohabitation is often a short-lived relationship (Bumpass & Sweet 1989), which means that those who were cohabiting at the time of the March CPS interview might not have been cohabiting throughout the previous year, and thus these annual earnings data are not necessarily concurrent with the marital status variable.

⁴ Note that in this model, the intercept now represents never-married white men with no children and zero on all the control variables. While this number is no longer itself relevant, the differences in log wages represented by the other coefficients are still readily interpretable.

⁵ The positive coefficients for Hispanic men and women dummy variables in this model are an artifact of the education slopes at zero years of education -- outside the range of the data.

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South, Scott J. 1996. "Mate availability and the transition to unwed motherhood: a paradox of population structure." Journal of Marriage and the Family 58(May):265-79.

South, Scott J and Glenna Spitze. 1994. "Housework in marital and nonmarital households." American Sociological Review 59(June):327-47

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division,
Racial Statistics Branch
Author: Philip N. Cohen
Maintained By: Laura K. Yax (Population Division)
Created: May 1999
Last Revised: July 15, 1999 at 02:29:22 PM Source: http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0035/twps0035.html#conc

Nearly 9-in-10 People May Marry, But Half of First Marriages
               May End in Divorce, Census Bureau Says

Nearly 9-in-10 people are expected to marry sometime in their lives, but
about half of first marriages may end in divorce, according to a report
released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.

"Most adults have married only once," said Rose Kreider, co-author of
Number, Timing and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 1996 [pdf]. "In 1996, 54 percent of men and 60 percent of women age 15 and over had married only once."

Among people who divorced from their first spouse, the median duration
of that marriage was about eight years. Among those who had remarried, the
median number of years before they married again was about three.

The median duration of second marriages that ended in divorce was about
seven years. (Median is the point below which half lasted a shorter time
and above which half were longer.)

Other highlights of the report:

- In 1996, 8 percent of men and 10 percent of women 15 years old and
     over were currently divorced, although 20 percent of men and 22
     percent of women had been divorced at least once.

- In 1996, about 13 percent of men and women had been married two
     times, while 3 percent of men and women had been married three or
     more times.

- About 52 percent of currently married couples had reached at least
     their 15th anniversary in 1996, and 5 percent of them had reached at
     least their golden anniversary (50 years).

The report is the Census Bureau's first comprehensive portrait of
marriage and divorce in nearly 10 years and, unlike other data sources,
provides estimates for men's and women's marital patterns through their
lifetimes.

Source: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-19.html

New Report Sheds Light on Trends and Patterns in Marriage, Divorce, and Cohabitation

Contact: NCHS/CDC Public Affairs
(301) 458-4800
E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov

Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the United States. Series Report 23, Number 22. 103pp.
(PHS) 98-1998.
View/download PDF 5.5 MB

By age 30, three-quarters of women in the U.S. have been married and about half have cohabited outside of marriage, according to a comprehensive new report on cohabitation, marriage, divorce, and remarriage released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report, prepared by CDCs National Center for Health Statistics, focuses not only on individual factors but also community conditions associated with long-term marriages as well as divorce and separation. Based on interviews with nearly 11,000 women 15-44 years of age, the study also examines conditions associated with cohabitation, including the impact that pre-marital cohabitation has on marriage and marital stability.

"We've expanded our analysis beyond the basic 'bookends' of marriage and divorce to look more closely at how the issue of cohabitation impacts the life of a relationship," said Dr. Ed Sondik, Director of CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. "At the same time, we've also attempted to look beyond the influence of individual characteristics and are looking more at the characteristics of the community at large to get a comprehensive picture of what factors impact marriage and divorce rates in this country."

Among the findings in the report: unmarried cohabitations overall are less stable than marriages. The probability of a first marriage ending in separation or divorce within 5 years is 20 percent, but the probability of a premarital cohabitation breaking up within 5 years is 49 percent. After 10 years, the probability of a first marriage ending is 33 percent, compared with 62 percent for cohabitations.

The study suggests that both cohabitations and marriages tend to last longer under certain conditions, such as: a womans age at the time cohabitation or marriage began; whether she was raised throughout childhood in an intact 2-parent family; whether religion plays an important role in her life; and whether she had a higher family income or lived in a community with high median family income, low male unemployment, and low poverty.

The report also shows that marriages that end do not always end in divorce; many end in separation and do not go through the divorce process. Separated white women are much more likely (91 percent) to divorce after 3 years, compared with separated Hispanic women (77 percent) and separated black women (67 percent).

Meanwhile, the probability of remarriage among divorced women was 54 percent in 5 years--58 percent for white women, 44 percent for Hispanic women, and 32 percent for black women. However, there was also a strong probability that 2nd marriages will end in separation or divorce (23 percent after 5 years and 39 percent after 10 years).

The likelihood that divorced women will remarry has been declining since the 1950's, when women who divorced had a 65 percent chance of remarrying. Data for 1995 show that women who divorced in the 1980s only had a 50 percent chance of remarrying.

The report, Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the United States, can be found on the CDC web site.

SOURCE: http://www.cdc.gov/

U.S. Adults Postponing Marriage, Census Bureau Reports

The Commerce Department's Census Bureau said today that between 1970 and
2000 the median age at first marriage for women increased by 4.3 years to
25.1 years; for men, the increase was 3.6 years to 26.8 years.

The Census Bureau cautions the public not to confuse these estimates,
based on survey data collected in March 2000, with Census 2000 data, which
are being released on a flow basis. Findings from these two sources may
not agree because of different data collection procedures.

"The postponement of marriage has led to a substantial increase in the
proportion of young, never-married adults," said Jason Fields, author of
America's Families and Living Arrangements: March 2000. "For example, in
the past three decades, the proportion of those who had never married
doubled for women ages 20 to 24, from 36 percent to 73 percent, and more
than tripled for women ages 30 to 34, from 6 percent to 22 percent."

Other findings:

    - In the 30 years from 1970 to 2000, the average size of the nation's
      households decreased from 3.14 to 2.62 persons.

    - In 2000, 10 percent of the nation's households contained five or
      more persons, down from 21 percent in 1970; 59 percent of households
      had one or two persons in 2000, up from 46 percent in 1970.

    - The proportion of households consisting of one person living alone
      increased from 17 percent in 1970 to 26 percent in 2000.

    - The number of single mothers increased between 1970 and 2000, from
      3 million to 10 million; over the same time frame, the number of
      single fathers increased also, from 393,000 to 2 million. (Single
      mothers and fathers include all those who are not currently living
      with a spouse.)

    - Twelve percent of wives were two or more years older than their
      husbands, while 15 percent earned at least $5,000 more than their
      husbands annually.

The statistics were collected in the March 2000 Current Population
Survey, which uses the 1990 census as the base for its sample. Statistics
from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error.
Source: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html

Proportion of Single Moms in Poverty and on Welfare Declines, Census Bureau Reports

The proportion of custodial mothers taking part in the nation's public
assistance programs -- a ratio of 4-in-5 are single -- fell from 26
percent to 11 percent over six years, according to a new report on child
support released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.
"Employment rates for custodial parents grew since 1993, with more than
half working full-time in 1999," said Timothy Grall, author of
Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 1999. [PDF 99.6kb]
"At the same time, the proportion of mothers and their children living in
poverty dropped 8 percentage points, to about 3-in-10 families."

The report also shows that, after increasing to 46 percent between 1993
and 1997, the proportion of custodial parents due support payments who
received the full amount did not change significantly between 1997 and
1999.

Other highlights:
- In spring 2000, an estimated 13.5 million parents had custody of
    21.7 million children who were under age 21 and whose other parent
    lived elsewhere. Of all custodial parents, 85 percent were mothers
    and 15 percent were fathers.

- More than 60 percent of custodial mothers and 39 percent of
    fathers had child support agreed on or awarded to them as of April
    2000.

- Custodial mothers received about 60 percent of the support due to
    them in 1999, while custodial fathers collected almost 48 percent.

- Custodial mothers who received any child support payments received
    an average of $3,800 in 1999; fathers averaged $3,200.

- Despite the 7-percentage-point decline in poverty for all
    custodial-parent families, the 26 percent rate remained about four
    times higher than the rate for married-couple families with related
    children in 1999 (6 percent).

Source: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-137.html

Growth in Single Fathers Outpaces Growth in Single Mothers, Census Bureau Reports

While the number of single mothers (9.8 million) has remained constant over the past three years, the number of single fathers has grown 25 percent, from 1.7 million in 1995 to 2.1 million in 1998, according to tabulations released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. Men now comprise one-sixth of the nation's 11.9 million single parents.

Other highlights for 1998 include:

Of the 102.5 million households in the United States, 69 percent are family households. The share of family households fell 10 percentage points between 1970 and 1990 (from 81 percent to 71 percent) but has dropped only 2 percentage points since.
About half (49 percent) of family households contain children under 18, down from 56 percent in 1970.
The growth of one-parent families is slowing. They comprise 27 percent of family households with children, up from 24 percent in 1990 and 11 percent in 1970.
Nearly 22 million adult (ages 18 or older) sons and daughters live in a home maintained by one or both parents, up from 15 million in 1970.
The average U.S. family household consists of 3.18 people, down from 3.58 in 1970, but unchanged from 1990. Hispanic families are larger, with an average of 3.92 members, than either African American or non-Hispanic White families, which average 3.42 and 3.02 members, respectively.

The tabulations are contained in Household and Family Characteristics: March 1998 (Update), The detailed and historical tables contain data on the type and size of households and families, the presence of children within them and the age, race and ethnicity of householders. Although the data are primarily national level, one table shows the average number of children per family by state.

A household is defined as a person or group of persons who live in a housing unit. A family is defined as a group of two or more people (one of whom is the householder, the person in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented) living together and related by birth, marriage or adoption.

Source: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-228.html

Labor Force Participation for Mothers With Infants

Declines for First Time, Census Bureau Reports

The labor force participation rates of mothers with infant children fell
from a record-high 59 percent in 1998 to 55 percent in 2000, the first
significant decline since the Census Bureau developed the indicator in
1976, according to a report released today by the Commerce Department's
agency.

"The declines occurred primarily among mothers in the workforce who were
30 years old and over, White women, married women living with their
husbands and women who had completed one or more years of college," said
analyst Martin O'Connell about the report, Fertility of American
Women: June 2000. "Whether the declines are short-lived or will continue
depends to a considerable extent on changes in the economy and changes in
the lifestyles of new mothers in balancing work and child-rearing activities."

In contrast to the overall trend, younger mothers (under age 30),
African American mothers, Hispanic mothers and mothers who had a high
school education or less did not experience a decline in their labor force<

HOUSEHOLD AND FAMILY STRUCTURE

Abridged Summary of:

Racial-Ethnic and Gender Differences in Returns to Cohabitation and Marriage: Evidence from the Current Population Survey

Population DivisionU.S. Bureau of the CensusWashington, D.C. 20233-8800

Population Division
U.S. Bureau of the Census
Washington, D.C. 20233-8800