The traditional family is alive and well.
Of the nation’s 73 million children, nearly 45 million (62 percent) live with their biological parents, according to a Census Bureau report released Wednesday. Another 19 million live with their unmarried, biological mothers.
Glenn Stanton, director of global family formation studies at Focus on the Family, said that, amid the rhetoric about two-parent families being an outmoded institution, this report is good news for families.
“People realize the value of giving kids a mother and a father,” he said. “We need to understand that that is the norm, that it’s the overwhelming majority and not the minority.
"That should give great encouragement to the majority of people out there that are trying to make their marriages work and their parenting relationships work.”
The report, collected from 2004 surveys, also shows cohabiting families are on the rise, with 3.7 million children living with one biological parent and an unmarried partner.
Jenny Tyree, associate marriage analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the cohabitation number is disheartening because studies reveal these children are worse off, on average, than children who are raised in a married household.
“Research continues to show that these children have poorer emotional health and are at higher risk to suffer abuse than their peers in married families,” she said. “Marriage continues to be one of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child.”
Stanton said the data prove it’s not just the presence of adults in the home, but the relationship between them that makes the difference in a child’s life.
“Two parents are the best resource that kids have to live a healthy, happy, productive life,” he said.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Focus on the Family analyzes family-formation trends in America.
Read the Family Research Council report on the Census survey.
