The most common family structure among Hispanic children in households with low incomes is a married two-parent1 family (43%), according to our analysis of 2023 American Community Survey data. An additional 13 percent of these children live with two cohabiting parents. Combined, 56 percent of Hispanic children in households with low incomes live in two-parent families, with either married or cohabiting parents. Rounding out the portrait of family structures, we also find that 40 percent of Hispanic children in households with low incomes live in single-parent families and 4 percent live in some other type of family arrangement with no parent present (e.g., with a grandparent).
Hispanic children in households with low incomes who live with an immigrant parent(s) are twice as likely to have two married parents present (58%) as those who live with only U.S.-born parents (29%) (see Table A). Conversely, those who live with only U.S.-born parents are just over twice as likely to be in a single-parent family (59%) as those living with an immigrant parent (28%). Overall, irrespective of family income, 55 percent of all Hispanic children live in families with two married parents, 30 percent live with one parent, 12 percent live with two cohabiting parents, and 3 percent have no parent present in the household (see Table A).
How and when people form families has changed substantially since the middle of the last century—shifts occurring in response to large-scale economic, social, and cultural changes within the United States and around the globe. People are increasingly cohabiting (living with an unmarried partner), waiting longer to get married, and, in many cases, having children before they marry. Additionally, divorce rates increased over much of the 20th century, although they have declined somewhat in recent years. These changes have altered the structure of children’s families (i.e., the composition and relationships of the family members with whom a child lives) and have done so differently across race and ethnicity, immigration status, and socioeconomic status.