For America’s children, living with only one parent isn’t quite the rule. But it’s very common nonetheless.

In 1990, there were more than 7 million single-parent families in the United States. A single-parent family consists of a parent who maintains a household and has one or more own children under the age of 18 living with him or her. These families represented 23 percent of all family households with own children under 18; the remainder were headed by married couples.

This is one of a series of Briefs that uses data collected in the 1990 Census of Population and Housing to examine the characteristics of housing in American metropolitan areas (MA’s). This Brief looks specifically at various housing conditions faced by single-parent family households. It also compares their situation with that of married-couple family households with own children.

The MA’s used here correspond to the definitions that were in place in 1990. The count of 335 MA’s equals the total number of MSA’s (metropolitan statistical areas) and PMSA’s (primary metropolitan statistical areas).

PMSA’s are aggregated into consolidated metropolitan statistical areas, not discussed in this Brief.