Financial Stats of Single Parents

  • In 1998, most (about 77 percent) single mothers worked. Of mothers with children under age one, almost 60 percent worked.
    “Employment Characteristics of Families in 1998,” News Release May 25, 1999, U.S. Bureau of Labor.
  • In 1998, the median income for single mother households was $18,000; for single father households the income was $30,000. (The median income for married-couple families with children was $57,000.)
    “Historical Income Tables?Families,” Bureau of the Census, www.census.gov, Last revised October 4, 1999.
  • In 1997, about 2 in 10 single-father-headed families were poor.
    “Two-Parent Versus Single-Father Families,” U.S. Census Bureau Public Information Office, June 6, 2000.
  • In 1995, nearly six of 10 children living with mothers only were near the poverty line.? About 45 percent of children raised by divorced mothers and 69 percent by never-married mothers lived in or near poverty, which was $13,003 for a family of three in 1998.
    Census Brief CENBR/97-1, Bureau of the Census, www.census.gov, September 1997.
  • In 1997, most of the children living in single parent homes (76 percent) had at least one parent working full time all year.
    “America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-being, 1999,” www.childstats.gov, July 9, 1999.