Children's Environment and Behavior: Children Born Outside of Marriage

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Between 1978 and 1996, the number of babies born to unmarried women doubled, from just over 500,000 to over 1.2 million. Although this dramatic rate of increase has slowed in recent years, 32 percent of all U.S. births are still to unmarried women. These children are more likely to be poor than children born to married women.

Legislators have made an effort to curb births outside of marriage. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, for example, made it easier for states to design welfare programs that serve married parents as well as unmarried parents. It also established $20 million bonuses for the five states that show the greatest decrease in births to unmarried women and set aside $50 million for abstinence education.

To examine poverty among children born outside of marriage—defined here as children under age 18 born to unmarried parents who were not married to each other at the time of this survey—mothers were asked about their marital status when their children were born, whether they were currently married to the children's biological father, and their income. It is important to note that although 32 percent of births nationwide occurred outside of marriage in 1996, only 18 percent of all children under age 18 fell into this category. These figures differ both because the proportion of births outside of marriage has risen over the past 18 years and because some parents of these children later marry each other.

Nationally, 50 percent of children born outside of marriage lived in families with incomes below the poverty level, compared to 14 percent of children born within marriage, a statistically significant difference. Among all children living with just their mother, 59 percent of those born outside of marriage were poor, compared to 37 percent of those born within marriage, a statistically significant difference.

Including other maternal characteristics further reduced the differences in poverty rates between children born outside of and within marriage, but it did not eliminate them. For example, 56 percent of children who were born outside of marriage to a young (under 25) white woman were poor. In contrast, 45 percent of children born within marriage to a young white woman were likely to be poor, a statistically significant difference.

The proportion of children born outside of marriage varied among the 13 states surveyed. Mississippi had the highest, with 29 percent; Minnesota and Washington, at 13 percent each, had the lowest. Five states had a lower percentage of children born outside of marriage than the national average (Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, Washington, and Wisconsin), and five states had a higher percentage (Alabama, California, Florida, Mississippi, and New York).

Note: The Portable Document Format (PDF) of this report includes all tables and charts.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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