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The number of children living without their fathers continues to rise in America, In 1960, only 90 percent of children age 18 or under lived with their fathers. By 2010, 27 percent did not. Since 2012, one third of children lived without–that is, 24

million American children are living without their biological father.

The number is further broken down into fathers who live apart from some of their children and fathers who live apart from all of their children. More fathers live apart from all of their children.

Every US state has seen a decline in homes with fathers, but there is a pronounced concentration of such homes in the Southeast and East. Inner cities locations also have shown to be spots where there are high percentages of single-parent families. The highest concentration of sustained fatherlessness is in the largely black poor across Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana along the Mississippi River.

Financial comfort is an observable factor in fatherlessness. Children from families below the poverty line are twice as likely to not have fathers present. For blacks the distinction is most extreme. Below the poverty line, only 12 percent of black children have fathers present; above the poverty line, 47 percent have fathers present.

For Whites, the figures are 32 and 78 percent, and for latinos, the figures are 41 and 68 percent.

Single mothers have an average income of $24,000–about half are below the poverty line. Married couples have an average of $80,000.

Race as a factor in fatherhood is an argued point of validity. “Education and income seem to trump them,” is the belief of the vice president of the National Fatherhood Initiative,Vincent DiCaro.

In 2010, when 27 percent of children lived without fathers, it was found that 40 percent of fathers who did not complete high school lived apart from their children, while only 7 percent of college graduates lived apart from their children.

The percentage of children living away from their mothers is also on the rise, although the numbers are smaller. In 1960, four 
percent of children lived with their father, and in 2010, 8 percent did.

The trend of fatherless children is at odds with cultural values. 70 percent of Americans say a father in the home is essential to a child’s happiness–a percentage just lower than that for having a mother in the home. Not only that, overall, 87 percent of males age 15-44 who do not have children say they want to be fathers, and, although most did not feel a man needs children to be happy, 90 percent of fathers said that being a father was the most fulfilling role a man can have.

What is missed when a child lacks a father has been documented. Children without fathers, even though they sometimes
communicate by phone or email, lack shared experiences such as talking about the child’s day, having meals together, help with homework, and being taken to and from activities.

Other issues related to fatherlessness: 63 percent of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, according to 2010 statistics; 90 percent of runaways (32 times the average); 85 percent of children who show behavior disorders; 80 percent of rapists with anger problems; 71 percent of high school dropouts; 75 percent of adolescents in chemical abuse centers; 70 percent of youths in state-operated institutions; 85 percent of youths in prison. Children from single-parent homes are twice as likely to experience child abuse and neglect. In fact, fifty percent of child abuse cases are from single-mother homes.

Daughters from fatherless homes are 711 percent more likely to have children as teenagers and 164 percent more likely to have a pre-marital birth, as well as being 92 percent more likely to get divorced.

So why are fathers not in the home? The number one reason cited is “non-marital relationships and divorce,” followed by incarceration (accounting for 7.3 million fatherless children).

 

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