Percent Of Families With One Parent Up

After two decades of declining numbers, two-parent families are on the rebound, according to a Census Bureau report. But, while the number of two-parent families has risen since 1990, the percentage of families headed by a single parent is still rising.

Nearly one-third of all American families with children were headed by a single parent in 1994, according to the survey released today. Those numbers have steadily increased from 13 percent in 1970, to 22 percent in 1980, and 28 percent in 1990; the figure rose to 30.8 percent in 1994.

The survey found sharply higher numbers among black families, where 65 percent of homes with children are today headed by single parents. Among whites, the figure is 25 percent.

“It’s not good news. The trend line continues to move in a disturbing direction,” said William Mattox, vice president for policy at the Washington-based Family Research Council.

Two-parent families with children, whose numbers had steadily fallen by almost 1 million between 1970 and 1990, showed an increase of nearly 600,000 between 1990 and 1994. At the same time, though, the percentage of families with two parents fell slightly, to 69.2 percent in 1994 from nearly 72 percent in 1990.