Family life in the United States takes many forms, from households with several generations or young children to people living alone. Recent Census Bureau, CDC, and Pew Research Center figures show both the current shape of American households and the long-term changes behind it.
Contents
- The size of U.S. households and families
- Children in family households
- Parents, partners, and living arrangements
- Young adults and older adults at home
- Marriage, divorce, and changing household patterns
- Family life in international perspective
The size of U.S. households and families
The 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates counted 132,737,146 total U.S. households. The average household contained 2.50 people. The same Census Bureau S1101 table counted 84,966,539 U.S. families, with an average family size of 3.11 people. These measures are different: a household is a residential unit, while a family is a household grouping connected through the Census Bureau’s family definition.
More than half of family households had three or more family members in 2024. The Census Bureau’s family households article put that share at about 52%. At the same time, family households were not necessarily homes with children. About 57% had no family members under age 18, while approximately 19% had one member under 18, 16% had two, and 9% had three or more.
| 2024 household measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total U.S. households | 132,737,146 |
| Average household size | 2.50 people |
| Total U.S. families | 84,966,539 |
| Average family size | 3.11 people |
| Family households with three or more family members | About 52% |
These figures describe the scale of family life without suggesting that one household structure is typical for every community. A family household may have no children under 18, while a nonfamily household may include people who share a home but are not related.
Housing tenure also differs by the age of the householder. About 37% of householders under age 25 owned their home in 2024. Nearly 90% of householders age 65 or older owned their home. The gap describes ownership by age group, not the financial circumstances or housing quality of individual families.
Children in family households
In 2024, about 39% of U.S. family households included the householder’s children under 18, according to the Census Bureau family households article. This share is consistent with the broader Census Bureau S1101 estimate of 33,671,692 households with the householder’s own children under 18.
The age of the householder matters. Children of the householder were most common in family households where the householder was ages 40 to 44: 84% of those family households included the householder’s children in 2024. By contrast, fewer than 10% of all family households included children under age 3. The latter figure is about the presence of very young children across family households, not the percentage of children who live with a particular type of parent.
Among households with the householder’s own children under 18, the 2024 ACS 1-year estimates show three distinct age patterns. Some 21.0% had only children under age 6. Another 19.1% had both children under 6 and children ages 6 to 17. The largest group, 59.9%, had only children ages 6 to 17. Together, these figures show why “households with children” covers very different daily routines, depending on whether children are preschool-aged, school-aged, or both.
The Census Bureau’s 2023 children and families release also shows a long-term decline in the share of families with their own children under 18 in the household. That share was 48% in 2003, 43% in 2013, and 39% in 2023. The measure concerns families and their own children under 18 in the household; it should not be read as the share of all children living with a parent.
In 2023, 75% of children under age 6 lived with two parents. Among children ages 12 to 17, the share was 68%. The difference by age group provides a snapshot of children’s living arrangements at two stages of childhood, rather than a prediction about any individual child’s future household.
Parents, partners, and living arrangements
The Census Bureau reported that 65% of all family groups with children under 18 were maintained by married parents in 2022. In the same year, about 74% of mothers lived with their child’s other parent, compared with about 91% of fathers. These measures use different denominators and should not be combined into a single percentage: one describes family groups, while the other describes mothers and fathers.
The share of children living with two married parents has changed substantially over the longer term. Pew Research Center’s America250 chart reported that 82% of children lived with two married parents in 1970. The share was 77% in 1980, 72% in 1990, 68% in 2000, 63% in 2010, and 62% in 2019. In 2024, the figure was about 63%.
| Year | Children living with two married parents |
|---|---|
| 1970 | 82% |
| 1980 | 77% |
| 1990 | 72% |
| 2000 | 68% |
| 2010 | 63% |
| 2019 | 62% |
| 2024 | About 63% |
Cohabiting parents are another part of the picture. About 3.2 million children under 18 lived with cohabiting parents in 2023, up from 2.2 million in 2007, according to the Census Bureau’s children and families release. Pew Research Center separately reported that 17% of U.S. children under 18 lived in a blended family most or all of the time. Its 2024 blended-families fact sheet gave the same 17% figure for 2024.
Single-parent households are also a significant part of family life. Pew Research Center reported that almost a quarter of U.S. children under 18, or 23%, lived with one parent and no other adults. That U.S. share was more than three times the global share of 7% in the comparison cited by the center.
Young adults and older adults at home
Living with parents is common among young adults, though the share varies by age and year. In 2023, 56% of adults ages 18 to 24 lived in their parental home, while only 16% of adults ages 25 to 34 did so, according to the Census Bureau’s children and families release.
The Census Bureau’s 2024 families and living arrangements release provides a longer comparison for adults ages 18 to 24. In 2022, about 57% of men and 55% of women in that age group lived in their parents’ home. In 1960, the corresponding shares were 52% for men and 35% for women. These comparisons span different years and should be read as historical snapshots rather than a continuous annual series.
At the other end of the age range, 26% of U.S. adults age 65 and older lived alone in 2023, according to Pew Research Center’s household structure topic page. The statistic describes one-person living arrangements among older adults; it does not indicate whether those adults were socially isolated or lacked family contact.
The number of one-person households helps place that older-adult figure in the broader household context. There were 38.1 million one-person households in 2023, representing 29% of all households. For comparison, single-person households were 13% of all households in 1960. Pew Research Center reported that women living alone were about 16% of households in 2022, up from about 12% in 1970, while men living alone were about 13% in 2022, up from about 6% in 1970.
Marriage, divorce, and changing household patterns
Marriage remains an important household pattern, but it represents a smaller share of households than it did in the past. Married-couple households were 47% of all U.S. households in 2022, down from 71% in 1970. Nonfamily households were about 36% of all households in 2022, up from about 19% in 1970.
The age of first marriage has also shifted. In 2023, 34% of adults age 15 and over had never been married, compared with 23% in 1950. The estimated median age at first marriage in 2023 was 30.2 for men and 28.4 for women.
CDC FastStats reported 2,041,926 U.S. marriages in 2023, with a marriage rate of 6.1 per 1,000 total population. It also reported 672,502 divorces in 2023, based on 45 reporting states and the District of Columbia, with a divorce rate of 2.4 per 1,000 population from those reporting areas. The reporting-area qualification matters: the marriage and divorce totals are not perfectly comparable measures of every event across all states.
Work and caregiving arrangements add another dimension. Almost one-quarter, or 23%, of children under 15 living in opposite-sex married-couple families had a stay-at-home mother in 2023. Only 1% had a stay-at-home father. These figures describe children in the specified family category and age range, not all parents or all household arrangements.
In 2020, about 20% of children lived in a household that received food stamps, up from 17% in 2019. The Census Bureau’s 2024 families and living arrangements release also reported that the share of children with no coresident parent or parents in the labor force rose from about 7% in 2019 to 8% in 2021. Because these observations refer to different years and measures, they should not be interpreted as a single trend line.
Among married couples with at least one spouse in their 30s or 40s, 12% had two incomes and no kids in the household, according to Pew Research Center’s household structure topic page. That figure identifies one household arrangement within a particular age-defined group rather than the share of all married couples.
Family life in international perspective
The 23% U.S. share of children living with one parent and no other adults is high compared with the global share of 7% reported by Pew Research Center. The same comparison placed the share at 3% in China, 4% in Nigeria, 5% in India, and 15% in Canada.
These country figures are useful for comparison because they use the same single-parent household concept in the cited Pew Research Center analysis. They do not explain why the shares differ, and they should not be treated as measures of family wellbeing. Household structure is only one part of family life, alongside relationships, resources, care, and community.
The U.S. figures also show that family life is not one fixed arrangement. In 2024, about 63% of children lived with two married parents, while 17% lived in a blended family most or all of the time. In 2023, 75% of children under 6 lived with two parents, and 68% of children ages 12 to 17 did so. Taken together, the statistics describe a country where married-parent households remain common, while one-parent, blended, cohabiting, multigenerational, and one-person households are also established parts of everyday life.