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Single Parents

The U.S. Has the Highest Share of Single Parenting

the U.S. has the highest share of single parenting in the world. In 2018, almost a quarter of U.S. children under the age of 18 lived in a household with a single parent and no other adults present other than adult children. Being a single parent predominantly affects mothers around the world. while around 5 percent live with just their father.

In 2019,

The UK has the second-highest rate of single parenting, followed by island nation Sao Tome and Principe, Russia and Denmark. The only African country in the survey with more than 15 percent of children living with single parents was Kenya. Some of the countries with the lowest rates of single parenting were Afghanistan (1 percent), Mali (1 percent) and Turkey (2 percent).

Developed countries mostly lead the world in single parenting, also due to fewer extended families living together there. Parents that were not cohabitating with a significant other but with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or even unrelated adults were not counted as single parents by the survey.

Description

This chart shows the share of children under the age of 18 living with single parents around the world in 2018.

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Number of single mother families living below poverty line in the U.S. 1990-2024
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Number of single parents in Germany 1996-2024
Number of children living with a single mother or father in the U.S. 1970-2025
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Single parents Germany 1996-2024, by gender
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Cost of childcare as a share of income for single parents 2023, by country
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Poverty rate among single mother families in the U.S. 1990-2024

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