Login
The U.S. Census Bureau has released estimates of same-sex couples in its annual America’s Families and Living Arrangements tables for the first time in history. The 2019 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) reveals that there are 543,000 same-sex married couple households in the U.S., 469,000 households with same-sex unmarried partners living together, and 191,000 children living with same-sex parents.
In comparison to the same-sex household estimates, there are 61.4 million opposite-sex married couple households, 8.0 million opposite-sex unmarried partner households and 51.4 million children living with opposite-sex parents.
Changes made to the CPS ASEC to be more representative of American Households include: (1) rewording the relationship to householder question to include opposite-sex/same-sex options, and (2) adding gender neutral parent identification questions that allow respondents to identify as having same-sex parents.
This added focuse on same-sex couples is indicative of growing family diversity in the nation, including unmarried couples who cohabit. Of adults ages 18 and over, 18.5 million live together, an increase of 14.2 million ten years ago. Cohabiting couples compare a larger share of all coupled households, comprising 12 percent of coupled households from 10 percent in 2009.
Here are some other key figures from the latest CPS:
- There are 36.5 million one-person households, making up 28 percent of all households.
- The number of families with children under 18 present has declined in the last twenty years, from 48 percent in 1999 and 45 percent in 2009 to 41 percent in 2019.
- In 2019, 32 percent of all adults ages 15 and over had never been married, up from 23 percent in 1950.
- The median age to marry for the first time is 29.8 for men and 28.0 for women, compared to ages 23.7 and 20.5, respectively, in 1947.
- Over a quarter of children under the age of 15 living in married-couple families have a stay-at-home mother, and only 1 percent have a stay-at-home father.
- More than half of young adults between the ages 18 to 24 live in their parental home, compared to 16 percent of those ages 25 to 34.
Read the full report here.
2019 NAWRB WHER
The 2019 NAWRB Women Housing Ecosystem Report (WHER) is the third installment of the most diverse coverage of the Housing Ecosystem with over sixty resources in six volumes: Diversity & Inclusion, Homeownership, Women-Owned Businesses, STEM, Aging Population, and Family Offices with a gender lens perspective. Learn more about each of the volumes and order a copy of the 2019 NAWRB WHER at https://www.nawrb.com/womenhousingecosystem/.