Children of a householder living with a same-sex spouse or partner were more likely to be non-Hispanic Black, and less likely to live with a married parent than children living with a householder parent in a male-female relationship.
Recent 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) data provide national estimates of children living with a householder parent in a same-sex relationship. A householder is someone who owns or rents the home that receives the survey. A householder parent can report biological, step, adopted, or foster children under 18 living with them.
While the majority of children under age 18 in a coupled household lived with an opposite-sex couple in 2019 (99.5%), 4 in 5 (79.5%) children living with a same-sex couple lived with a female parent and their female partner or spouse.
While multiple people may own or rent the home, the ACS only allows for one respondent to indicate that they do so. The spouse or unmarried partner of the householder parent may also be the biological, step or adoptive parent of the child, but the ACS does not measure this relationship.
Descriptions of “parent(s)” throughout the story refer only to householder parents. As a result, there are children of same-sex couples who are not represented in this story. For example, people under 18 who are not reported as the child of the householder are not included here.
Children living in their grandparent’s home, for instance, would not be considered as living with a householder parent if the grandparent is the householder. Furthermore, married and unmarried couples are grouped together (unless specified otherwise) to provide enough statistical power, but combining these couples could mask some variation between the two groups.
Despite the limitations of ACS data, this story offers an opportunity to compare the characteristics of children of same- and opposite-sex couples. The large sample size in the ACS provides a sufficient number of responses to allow for statistical comparisons and analysis of children with same-sex parents.
While the majority of children under age 18 in a coupled household lived with an opposite-sex couple in 2019 (99.5%), 4 in 5 (79.5%) children living with a same-sex couple lived with a female parent and their female partner or spouse.
Nationally, 0.5% of children living in coupled households lived with a householder parent in a same-sex relationship.
The relationship between children and their householder parent also differed according to couple type:
More information on confidentiality protection, methodology, sampling and nonsampling error, and definitions is available on this technical documentation page.
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