National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C.            Vol. 31, No. 4 * March 1, 1999

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A Quick Look at America's Families

In 1997, the Urban Institute conducted a National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF). This survey requested information that can be used to measure the well-being of families across the nation.

Thirteen states were included: Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin, which represent more than half of the country’s population.

Information was gathered about more than 75,000 adults and nearly 35,000 children, representing approximately 45,000 households.

This survey further highlights the difficulties of the 43 percent of children who are living in households with incomes of less than $31,822 (poverty level for a family of four).

The data demonstrates that the lives of children in higher income households, as far as health care, parental employment or child development, are very different than their counterparts in lower income homes.

Highlights of the data from the survey include:

Twenty percent of the children surveyed were living in families below the poverty level, while only 12 percent of the adults were classified as poverty level or below.

Forty-three percent of the children accounted for in the survey lived in low-income families and 29 percent of the adults were classified as low income.

The rate of poverty varied drastically in the 13 states included in the survey. The states with the lowest proportion of poor and low-income people were Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Washington and Wisconsin.

Three of these states–Minnesota, New Jersey and Wisconsin–had poverty rates of less than 10 percent. Alabama (20 percent), California (20 percent), New York (17 percent), and Texas (19 percent) all reported higher than average poverty rates (15 percent), and Mississippi reported the highest poverty rate (25 percent) in the survey.

The rates of poverty varied widely by race and ethnic origin. The results indicated that 13 percent of whites live in poverty compared to 28 percent of blacks. Thirty percent of whites and 50 percent of blacks were classified as low income. Nearly one third of people of Hispanic origin were listed as poor and nearly two-thirds were classified as low income.

Ability to maintain housing
The response to the survey indicates that 16 percent of parents overall have experienced hardship in acquiring housing. More specifically, 28 percent of families with low incomes report difficulty with finding a place to live, while only 9 percent of families with higher incomes have reported the same.

Thirty-nine percent of the low-income parents in Massachusetts indicated that they had experienced problems paying their mortgages, rent or utility bills. But in Colorado, only 24 percent of the low-income parents reported problems paying their bills, well below the national average of 28 percent.

Employment
During the fiscal year 1995–96, 82 percent of all adults worked in either a full- or part-time job. In families with low incomes 62 percent of adults worked, while families of higher incomes, report 89 percent employment. These rates varied widely depending on the family situation. Married mothers were more likely not to work (68 percent worked) than married fathers (94 percent worked).

The survey also showed that low-income parents (65 percent) and unmarried low-income parents (63 percent) worked less than the national average of 82 percent for all adults.

Family structure
The survey reports that the majority of the children in the country live in homes with two parents. This includes both biological and adoptive parents.

The survey showed that 63 percent of children in this country live in a two-parent family, while 27 percent live with only one parent. A recent phenomena highlighted by the survey results is the 8 percent of children who live in blended families. Only 3 percent of children were found to live with no parents in the household.

The state of Minnesota reported the highest rate of two-parent families, at more than 72 percent. The national average is 62.6 percent.

Alabama tops the states for the percentage of children living in blended families, at nearly 10 percent. Alabama was followed closely by Texas (9.5 percent), Mississippi (8.8 percent) and Colorado (8.4 percent).

Mississippi leads the states in the survey in percentage of single-parent families, with nearly 37 percent, followed by Florida (32 percent), and Alabama and New York at 31 percent. Minnesota, which reported the highest percentage of two-parent families, also reports the lowest percentage of single-parent families, at only 20 percent.

For additional information about this survey, contact NACo’s Research Division, at 202/942-4285 or jbyers@naco.org or the Urban Institute at 2100 M St., N.W., Washington, DC 20037, 202/261-5709.

Urban Institute Survey Family Structure of Children 1997
State	Two Parent Families	Blended Families	One Parent Families	No Parent
Alabama	53.8	9.6	31.7	4.9
California	63.1	5.1	29.2	2.6
Colorado	66.4	8.4	22.4	2.9
Florida	54.6	8.2	32.3	5.0
Massachusetts	>68.2	4.2	24.5	3.1
Michigan	64.2	7.7	25.7	2.4
Minnesota	72.3	5.9	20.0	1.7
Mississippi	47.7	8.8	36.6	7.0
New Jersey	70.1	4.9	22.2	2.9
New York	60.3	5.0	31.5	3.2
Texas	59.0	9.5	27.0	4.5
Washington	67.9	8.2	21.9	2.1
Wisconsin	66.6	7.7	23.4	2.3
U. S. average	62.6	7.6	26.7	3.2

(Research News was written by Jacqueline Byers, director of research.)