Title: African Americans and Black Community - Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood
Headings: African Americans and Black Community
African Americans and Black Community
Overview and Background of the African American Community
Marriage in the African American Community
Marriage and divorce rates:
Resources for Practitioners
Further Resources:
Links to Other Relevant Information

Content: One hundred years later, only 40% of African-American children live in married-couple households. • African Americans are significantly less likely than other racial/ethnic groups to ever marry, less likely to remarry, more likely to divorce, separate and cohabit and bear and rear children out-of-wedlock (and in mother-only households). • There is a marriage gap in the African American community based on educational attainment. Only 28% of Blacks with no education are married compared to 55% of Blacks with a college education. • One explanation for lower marriage rates among women, as identified by blackdemographics.com, is related to the earnings potential among black men. With higher college graduation rates among African American women, the median income fell 12% for Black men while rising 75% for the women from 1974 to 2004. A high-earning woman has little incentive to marry a low-earning man. • Black women divorce at a rate nearly double of either white or Hispanic women. • Between 1970 and 2000 the percent of African Americans who have ever married declined from 64% to 55% among men and from 72% to 58% among women (2003 census). • Higher mortality rates due to poor health care, violent crime, and ever growing incarceration rates, have been shown to decrease the African American male population.