Interesting Facts about Single Mother Statistics

Single mothers statistics can surprise you the first time you see them, and you may discover that you have more in common with the average single mom than you originally thought. The United States Census Bureau released a study in 2009 entitled Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support which lays out an interesting and somewhat startling picture. According to this study, there are roughly 13.7 million single parents in the United States alone these days. These single parents are responsible for raising 21.8 million children collectively. These are just a small examples of what single mothers statistics have to say.

Single mothers statistics always tell us a lot about what the average single parent is really like. As one would assume, about 80 percent of all single parents are female and only about 16 percent are male. Of the mothers who have custody of their children, 45 percent of them are either divorced or separated. However, there is still a significant portion, 34.2 percent which have never been married. Of the fathers on the other hand, almost 60 percent of them are divorced or separated and about 21 percent have never been married.

It should also go without saying that single mother statistics reveal that a large majority of these single mothers are gainfully employed. More specifically, about 80 percent are working, with about 50 percent having full time jobs year round about 30 percent having part time or partial year jobs. This means that more single fathers are employed than mothers as the stats show that 90 percent of single fathers work full time, all year round.

One of the major assumptions that many people have concerning single moms is that they are below the poverty level, but interestingly enough the statistics on single mothers reveal that only about 27 percent of these moms are poor. This is still a significantly higher percentage when compared with single fathers however which only have about 12 percent living below the poverty line. This also means that most single mothers do not rely on public assistance in order to get by. Single mother statistics reveal that only about 22 percent of them collect Medicaid, 23.5 percent receive food stamps, 12 percent rely on public housing, and 5 percent collect welfare.

Now that you understand single mothers statistics a bit better, you may have an entirely different view of this issue. There plenty of other fascinating facts that you can learn from studying statistics on single mothers; for example, 39 percent of these single moms are over 40 years old and 54 percent of them are raising one child, which leaves about 46 percent that happen to be raising at least two children. There are always new things to learn about people and their situations, and one way this can be accomplished is through statistics provided by the Census Bureau.