For decades, the share of U.S. children living with a single parent has been rising, accompanied past a decline in wedlock rates and a rise in births outside of spousal relationship. A new Pew Research Center written report of 130 countries and territories shows that the U.Due south. has the world's highest rate of children living in single-parent households.

Almost a quarter of U.Due south. children under the historic period of 18 live with one parent and no other adults (23%), more 3 times the share of children around the world who do so (7%). The written report, which analyzed how people's living arrangements differ by religion, also establish that U.S. children from Christian and religiously unaffiliated families are well-nigh as likely to live in this type of system.

In comparing, 3% of children in Mainland china, 4% of children in Nigeria and 5% of children in Bharat alive in single-parent households. In neighboring Canada, the share is 15%.

About a quarter of U.S. children live in single-parent homes, more than in any other country

While U.S. children are more likely than children elsewhere to alive in single-parent households, they're much less likely to alive in extended families. In the U.S., 8% of children live with relatives such every bit aunts and grandparents, compared with 38% of children globally.

Researchers have different ways of categorizing single-parent households. In this report, unmarried-parent households have a sole adult living with at least one biological, step or foster child under historic period 18. Another organizations, including the U.S Demography Bureau, likewise include households that have grandparents, other relatives or cohabiting partners present.

Economic well-being a factor in household size

Effectually the world, living in extended families is linked with lower levels of economic development: Financial resources stretch farther and domestic chores such equally childcare are more easily accomplished when shared amidst several adults living together.

The U.S., like other economically advanced countries, specially in Europe and northern Asia, has relatively small households overall. The average person in the U.S. lives in a habitation of 3.iv people – which is less than the global average of four.9, only slightly higher than the European average of 3.i. In the U.S., Christians (iii.4), the unaffiliated (3.2) and Jews (3.0) live with roughly the aforementioned number of household members.

However, household sizes vary by age – the average U.S. child nether 18 lives in a household of 4.6 members, while the average adult age 60 or older only lives with 1 other person.

In early adulthood, Americans continue to live with their parents at relatively loftier rates. Adult kid households account for xx% of Americans betwixt the ages of 18 and 34. (Developed child households are defined equally at least one parent living with one son or daughter 18 or older and no modest children or other family members.) Immature adults in the U.S. are similar to their Canadian counterparts in this regard, and North America has a higher share of young adults who alive in this system than any other region.

U.South. differs in living arrangements for older adults

Americans likewise differ from others around in the world in their living arrangements after historic period 60. Older adults in the U.S. are more than likely than those around the world to age alone: More than a quarter of Americans ages 60 and older live alone (27%), compared with a global boilerplate of 16%. There are just 14 countries with college shares of older adults living lone, and all are in Europe. They include Lithuania (41%), Denmark (39%) and Hungary (37%).

The well-nigh common arrangement for older U.S. adults, nevertheless, is to live as a couple without whatsoever other children or relatives. Almost half of U.Due south. adults ages 60 and older alive in such households (46%), compared with a global boilerplate of 31%. Conversely, older Americans are much less likely to alive with a wider circle of relatives. Simply 6% of older U.South. adults live in extended-family households, compared with 38% of adults ages 60 and older globally.

Globally, 38% live in extended-family homes, but in the U.S. only 11% do

Living in smaller households after age 60 is frequently tied to national rates of economic prosperity and life expectancy. Older adults are more likely to alive solitary or as couples in countries where an average person can expect to alive more than 70 years. In countries where lives are shorter, adults sixty and older tend to live with other family members instead. Life expectancy is oftentimes linked to other markers of prosperity inside a country, and then older adults who can await to live into their 80s as well tend to alive in countries where living lone is more affordable.

And in countries where governments provide fewer retirement benefits or other safety nets, families often face greater responsibility to support aging relatives. Cultural norms also play a role, and, in many parts of the world, it is expected that developed children will care for their aging parents.

Despite these many differences, U.S. household patterns are also similar to those in other countries in some ways, and a few of these commonalities are tied to gender.

Women ages 35 to 59 in the U.Due south., for example, are more probable than men in the same age group to live as single parents (9% vs. ii%), a pattern mirrored in every region and religious group around the world.

And women, on boilerplate, are younger than their husbands or male person cohabiting partners in every country analyzed. That age gap is two.2 years in the U.South. and in the residue of the globe ranges from 2 years in the Czech republic to fourteen.five years in Gambia. Within the U.S., Jewish partners are closest in historic period, with only one yr between them, while Christians and the unaffiliated have an equal gap (2.ii years).

Coupled with women'southward longer life expectancy, this tendency helps explain some of the differences in how older men and women in the U.S. alive.

More than half of U.S. men ages 60 and older (55%) live with a partner and no one else, while roughly four-in-10 women (39%) practice. And almost a third of women ages threescore and older live lone (32%), while this is true of one-in-v men in the same age group (20%).

Note: Run into full methodology.

Stephanie Kramer is a senior researcher focusing on religion at Pew Research Center.