<P> In this section we will use data from U.S. Census bureau and the National Assessment of Educational Progress to evaluate how the increase in single - parent households may have affected children 's educational achievements . The percentage of children living with single parents increased substantially in the United States during the second half of the 20th century . According to Child Trends , 2013 only 9 % of children lived with single parents in the 1960s -- a figure that increased to 28 % in 2012 . The main cause of single parent families are high rates of divorce and non-marital childbearing . According to Blankenhorn 1995 , Fagan 1999 , Pearlstein 2011 , Popenoe 2009 and Whitehead 1997 researches , single parent family is the primary cause of school failure and problems of delinquency , drug use , teenage pregnancies , poverty , and welfare dependency in American society . Using multilevel modeling , Pong 1997 and Pong 1998 high proportions of children from single parent families perform very poorly on math and reading achievement tests in schools . </P>
<P> In this section we will use data from U.S. Census bureau and the National Assessment of Educational Progress to evaluate how the increase in single - parent households may have affected children 's educational achievements . The percentage of children living with single parents increased substantially in the United States during the second half of the 20th century . According to Child Trends , 2013 only 9 % of children lived with single parents in the 1960s -- a figure that increased to 28 % in 2012 . The main cause of single parent families are high rates of divorce and non-marital childbearing . According to Blankenhorn 1995 , Fagan 1999 , Pearlstein 2011 , Popenoe 2009 and Whitehead 1997 researches , single parent family is the primary cause of school failure and problems of delinquency , drug use , teenage pregnancies , poverty , and welfare dependency in American society . Using multilevel modeling , Pong 1997 and Pong 1998 high proportions of children from single parent families perform very poorly on math and reading achievement tests in schools . </P>
what is the percentage of single parents in america
what is the percentage of single parents in america
28 %
28 %