SINGLE-DAD HOUSEHOLDS UP ALMOST TWICE AS MUCH AS SINGLE-MOM HOUSEHOLDS

According to the 2000 Census, the decade of the 1990s saw a 78 percent jump in the number of Virginia’s households that are classified as "Family households headed by males with no spouse present and containing own children under 18"—in other words, single dads and their kids. In 1990 there were just over 28,000 of these households; by 2000 the number had risen to almost 49,800.

78 percent is almost twice the rate of growth as that for households headed by single moms, but there were many more single-mom than single-dad households—133,300 in 1990 and 186,600 in 2000.

The increase in both kinds of households means that in 2000, over a fourth of all Virginia households that contained parents and their children were headed by a single parent. The actual proportion, 27 percent, was the same in both metro and nonmetro areas, but it differed between cities and counties. Cities had the highest proportions of single-parent households, 37 percent, while the nonmetro counties, the "suburbs," had the lowest proportion, 21 percent (see map).

The highest proportions of single-parent households—a third of all households that contain children—are concentrated in the eastern part of Southside, the Eastern Shore, and both large and small cities throughout the state. The very highest proportions are in Petersburg, Richmond, and Hopewell, where over half of all households containing parents and children are single-parent households.

But—married-couple households remain the places where most children live. Though their proportions are declining, in 2000 they were 73 percent of all households containing "own children."

Finally, among all households, not just those with children, the proportion of people living alone is rising, particularly in the suburbs, the traditional home of two-parents-two-kids-a-dog-and-a-cat. In the state as a whole, 26 percent more people live alone than in 1990, and in 2000, almost a third of them are age 65 or over. And the proportion of households containing unmarried partners, measured for the first time in 2000, averages only 5 percent statewide, ranging from 2 percent in Lexington to 8 percent in Manassas Park.

For additional information contact Julia Martin at (434) 982.5581, jhm3c@virginia.edu