U.S. Adults Provided $17.5 Billion in Support to Parents in 2020

Number Who Helped Parents Financially Almost as High as Number Who Paid Child Support

June 14, 2023

Written by:

Liza C. Valle

Roughly 4.3 million U.S. adults provided voluntary financial support to parents in 2020 — almost as many as the 4.4 million who made mandatory child support payments.

But the amount of money spent on parental support was significantly lower: $17.5 billion compared to $30.6 billion for child support, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

In 2020, about 2.4 million U.S. parents received an average of more than $2,000 (median annual payment of $3,749) from adult children.

Money given to parents fell by roughly $9 billion from 2019 to 2020, a year that included the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Estimates from the 2014-2021 SIPP show that over this eight-year period, annual support provided to parents ranged from a low of $10.4 billion in 2014 to a high of $27.9 billion in 2018 (Figure 1).

Since this financial support is voluntary, a fluctuation in annual amounts is expected. However, the drop in support in 2020 may be explained by financial hardship during the pandemic, limiting the amount people could give to parents.

Figure 1. Total Financial Support Provided to Parents Living Outside the Home: 2013-2020

Large Share of Payments to Those Living Outside the Household Went to Parents

In 2020, approximately 8.7 million people provided $48.6 billion to support individuals who lived outside their households, including parents and grown children. These providers who voluntarily gave monetary support to people living elsewhere do not include those who gave mandated support in the form of child support or alimony.

Voluntary support can come in the form of regular or lump sum payments. In 2020, U.S. support providers made voluntary payments to:

6.7 million parents ($17.5 billion).
3.1 million adult children ages 21 or older who were not away at school ($17.6 billion).
4.0 million relatives other than parents and adult children ($11.0 billion).
1.9 million nonrelatives ($2.5 billion).

Half of all adults who made these payments to people outside their households were helping parents (4.3 million).

In 2020, about 2.4 million U.S. parents received an average of more than $2,000 (median annual payment of $3,749) from adult children.

More than half (53.9%) of parental support providers made payments to one parent and 40.8% to two parents.

When adult children report supporting only one parent, it is often because that parent is a widow or widower. Of the 2.3 million adult children who reported supporting only one parent, about 1.3 million (or 57.3 %) indicated it was because the other parent was dead.

Only 5.3% of parental support providers made payments to three or more parents (Table 1), suggesting that a minority of these households were supporting both parents and stepparents. (Payments made to parents-in-law are reported in the SIPP as payments to “other relatives.”)

Table 1. U.S. Parental Support Providers by the Numbers: 2020

Who Provided Parental Support?

Those who provided parental support differed demographically from those who did not. They were generally younger (average age 42 vs. 47) and more likely:

To be men (57.7% vs. 48.3%).
To be employed (89.7% vs. 62.8%).
To be married (63.2% vs. 48.1%).
To have a bachelor’s degree (39.0% vs. 34.0%).

Figure 2. Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Adults Who Financially Support/Do Not Support Parents: 2020

Roughly half (45.9%) of those who provided voluntary support to parents living elsewhere were non-citizens. And among those who were U.S. citizens, around 43% were naturalized, suggesting parental giving was more common among immigrants or those who came from immigrant families.

Among supported parents, 62.4% come from only five countries, with most supported parents having been born in either Mexico (26.0%) or the United States (22.3%). Three of these leading five countries of origin are in Latin America (Mexico, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic) and accounted for 33.0% of supported parents.

Additionally, about half (50.2%) of those who provided support to their parents in 2020 were Hispanic. A possible explanation: the parents of 94.3% of Hispanic parental support providers were born in Latin American countries where a considerable share of the older population lacks retirement benefits, according to a 2021 report from the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency. So these parents may rely on their children for financial support in their retirement years. Around 59.2% of Hispanic parental support providers had at least one parent who was born in Mexico.

About the SIPP

The SIPP is a nationally representative, longitudinal survey administered by the Census Bureau that provides comprehensive information on the dynamics of income, employment, household composition and government program participation.

More information is available on the SIPP webpage. Technical documentation and more information about SIPP data quality are on the SIPP Technical Documentation webpage. The estimates presented here are subject to sampling and nonsampling error.

Liza C. Valle is an analyst in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division.