Who's Counting

1 mother + 2 kids + 0 husband = Family.
In the US in 1960, unmarried mothers accounted for about 5 percent of births, now they are almost 40%; about half are women on their own, the rest with partners. More and more women are choosing to bring up their families along or to have a child without a partner. Single parent families now make up about 40% of households. This makes the emphasis society places on the traditional nuclear family.

1 mother + 2 kids + 1 husband is an equation that could become more rarefied in the decades to come. Will the children of single parent families themselves become single parents or will they try to create the “traditional” nest they themselves didn’t have?

One good thing about statisticians they will always continue to count so the identification of trends will continue to intrigue those of us who enjoy counting – but not necessarily accounting.