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Relationship and Family Statistics

Family and non-marital relationship changes help inform the context in which individuals and couples attempt and achieve healthy marriages. In this section of the Website, we provide resources on the collection, reporting and analyzing of family and relationship statistics. Statistics of interest include the national birth rate, average age at first sexual intercourse, teen and nonmarital pregnancy rates and percent of children living in various family formations. We will also provide information on family and relationship trends worldwide. Finally, this section of the Website details commonly used datasets that researchers use to calculate various family and relationship statistics.

Topics on this Page:

• Youth
  • Children
  • Adolescents
• Cohabitation
• Child Birth

Youth

Children and adolescents are raised in families and households, and often the way their families function is related to their outcomes and experience in life. On this page, you can find links to articles and reports that help explain and document the life experiences of children and adolescents, especially in relation to their family life and behaviors, such as sexual activity, that can impact their future family formation. For more information about the kinds of households that children live in, please see the featured links in Marriage Statistics and Divorce Statistics.

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• Children

  • http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2002_06_01_RB_ChildsViewMarriage.pdf - Marriage from a Child’s Perspective: How does Family Structure Affect Children and What Can we do about it?
  • http://www.nccp.org/tools/demographics/ - The National Center for Children in Poverty’s Searchable 50 State Demographics Tool
  • http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/family.cfm (Child Trends’ Data bank) – Family Structure
  • http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_684.pdf - Who are America’s Poor Children?
  • http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/early.cfm (Child Trends’ Data Bank) – Child Development
  • http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2007_05_31_RB_Prenatal.pdf - Men’s Pregnancy Intentions and Prenatal Behavior: What they Mean for Father’s Involvement with Their Children
  • http://www.childstats.gov/pubs.asp - America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Child Wellbeing

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• Adolescents

  • http://www.teenpregnancy.org/america/default.asp - The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy’s Searchable Database with information on teen demographics, sexual activity, pregnancy and risk behaviors
  • http://www.teenpregnancy.org/resources/reading/fact_sheets/default.asp - The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy’s collection of fact sheets
  • http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2005_09_01_ES_FreezeFrame.pdf - Freeze Frame: A Snapshot of America’s Teens
  • http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2006_08_01_RB_Contraceptives.pdf - Trends and Recent Estimates: Contraceptive Use among US Teens
  • http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2006_06_01_RB_SexualActivity.pdf - Trends and Recent Estimates: Sexual Activity among US Teens
  • http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/childbearing.cfm - Child Trend’s Databank – Teenage Sexual Activity and Pregnancy
  • http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/KIDSCOUNT.aspx - Annie E. Casey’s Kid’s Count Database
  • http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p70-109.pdf - Census Bureau Reports
  • http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg.htm (National Center for Health Statistics) - Analysis of the National Survey for Family Growth
  • http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_024.pdf - Teenagers in the United States: Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing, 2002, and Use of Contraception and Use of Family Planning Services in the United States, 1982-2002
  • http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/teenpreg1990-2002/teenpreg1990-2002.htm - Recent Trends in Teenage Pregnancy in the United States
  • http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/04news/teens.htm - Teens Delaying Sexual Activity: Using Contraception More Effectively

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Cohabitation

Cohabitation is a relatively new family formation. The term applies to many different relationship types and levels of commitment but generally refers to unmarried couples living at least part of the time in the same dwelling. The articles and links below provide statistics on numbers, rates and duration of cohabitations and may employ different definitions of a cohabiting relationship.

• http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2007_05_14_RB_OutsideBirths.pdf - The Relationship Context of Births outside of Marriage: The Rise of Cohabitation
• Measuring the Formation and Dissolution of Marital and Cohabiting Unions in Federal Surveys
• http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_022.pdf - Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the United States

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Child Birth

Child Birth statistics often include parental age at first birth, number of total children a woman is likely to have (total fertility rate), her marital status at birth and the rates of childbirth for women by age. The following links can help you sort out the changing patterns of American child birth. Please also see our resources for Adolescent statistics for additional information on teen births.

• http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2007_05_14_RB_OutsideBirths.pdf - The Relationship Context of Births outside of Marriage: The Rise of Cohabitation
• http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2001_04_01_RB_BirthsMarriage.pdf - Births outside of Marriage: Perceptions versus Reality
• http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2006_11_1_RB_MultiplePartners.pdf - Men who Father Children with More than One Woman: A Contemporary Portrait of Multi-Partner Fertility
• http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/pdf/FactSheet-Overview.pdf - Unwanted Pregnancy
• http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/births.htm - Fast Facts on Birth
• http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/births.htm - Birth Data from the National Center on Health Statistics
• http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/fertility/mar-fert-slides.html - Indicators of Marriage and Fertility in the United States From the American Community Survey, 2000 to 2003
• http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_025.pdf - Fertility, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health of U.S. Women: Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth
• http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/prelimbirths05/prelimbirths05.htm - Births: Preliminary Data from 2005

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