A Report on Family in America’s Cities
September 22, 2011
JESSE POWELL writes:
The focus of this report is the child population in America’s 25 largest cities. The Married Families Ratio (MFR), the proportion of all families with own children under 18 headed by a married couple, fell for all racial groups from 2000 to 2010. In proportional terms it fell the least among Asians, moderately among whites, and the most for blacks and Hispanics. This is exactly what one would expect according to the rule that family breakdown accelerates as it becomes more severe.
Every one of these cities has fewer white children than the national average and in ten of the 25 cities, fewer than one out of five children are white.
Also given, for the years 2000 and 2010 according to race, is the Married Parents Ratio (MPR), the proportion of all own children under 18 whom live with married parents. The Married Parents Ratio is from the child’s point of view while the Married Families Ratio is from the household’s point of view. The reason why the Married Parents Ratio tends to be a bit higher than the Married Families Ratio is because married couples with children tend to have more children on average than single parents do.
The below table gives the proportion of the total population that was under 18 in the United States in 2000 and 2010 as well as the racial composition of the child population and the Married Parents Ratio and the Married Families Ratio by race for 2000 and 2010.
In the table below, MPR stands for Married Parents Ratio (the proportion of own children living with married parents) and MFR stands for Married Families Ratio (the proportion of families with own children headed by a married couple). Under the headings “2000” and “2010” is the proportion of the total population under 18 (in the “Total” row) and the racial composition of the child population in the United States.
The racial categories are White (non-Hispanic white alone), Black (black alone), Hispanic (all Hispanics), Asian (Asian alone), and Mixed (two or more races).
|
|
2000 |
2010 |
2000 MPR |
2010 MPR |
2000 MFR |
2010 MFR |
| Total | 24.7% | 24.0% | 73.9% | 70.2% | 71.8% | 67.9% |
| White | 60.9% | 53.5% | 80.9% | 78.1% | 77.6% | 74.1% |
| Black | 15.1% | 14.6% | 41.9% | 38.8% | 41.9% | 38.6% |
| Hispanic | 17.1% | 23.1% | 71.3% | 66.8% | 69.4% | 65.1% |
| Asian | 3.4% | 4.4% | 87.9% | 87.1% | 86.1% | 85.2% |
| Mixed | 4.0% | 5.6% | 67.5% | 61.5% | 65.4% | 58.8% |
Looking at the family situation according to race in America’s 25 largest cities, updating the information given earlier in the “Marriage in the Major Cities” post, one sees that the difference between races even within the same city is usually quite large. Race seems to be a more important factor than the particular city one is living in, but at the same time there are large differences between one city and another city even within the same race. The best city among the 25 largest for whites in 2010, according to the Married Parents Ratio, was Washington D. C. (with a white MPR of 88.8%); the worst was Detroit (with a white MPR of 68.8%). Among blacks Detroit and Washington D. C. are nearly identical to each other with about 1/4th of black children living with married parents. From the point of view of blacks Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Baltimore, and Washington D. C. are all about the same with a black Married Parents Ratio going from 25.6% to 26.2%.
It wasn’t always this way. In 1950 Detroit was 84% white while Washington D. C. was only 65% white. The whites in Detroit were better off in terms of family life than the whites in D.C. Following 1950, blacks rushed into the city of Detroit while whites fled in massive numbers; in D.C. on the other hand whites slowly but steadily leaked out while the black population remained steady with slight growth. The results among the black population are about the same for the two cities but for whites are radically different.
Below are tables comparing Detroit to Washington D.C. and the change in the two cities between 1950 and 2010.
The labels in the first table are: %wCh (percent white children, the proportion of the child population that was white; white was counted as all whites in 1950 and non-Hispanic white alone in 2010); %bCh (percent black children, the proportion of the child population that was black; black is counted as all nonwhites in 1950 and as black alone in 2010); wAdu/wCh (white Adults divided by white Children, the number of white adults per white child in the city’s population); bAdu/bCh (black Adults divided by black Children, the number of black adults per black child in the city’s population); nor/wAdu (normalized white Adults, this sets the number of white Adults in the population to 100 for the year 1950 to show the increase or decrease in the white Adult population from 1950 to 2010); nor/bAdu (normalized black Adults, this sets the number of black Adults in the population to 100 for the year 1950 to show the increase or decrease in the black Adult population from 1950 to 2010)
|
|
%wCh |
%bCh |
wAdu/wCh |
bAdu/bCh |
nor/wAdu |
nor/bAdu |
| 1950 Detroit | 82.2% | 17.8% | 2.73 | 2.40 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| 2010 Detroit | 4.4% | 82.6% | 5.60 | 2.75 | 4.2 | 202.0 |
| 1950 D.C. | 56.5% | 43.5% | 3.96 | 2.54 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| 2010 D.C. | 17.4% | 66.4% | 10.95 | 3.56 | 46.4 | 116.8 |
In the second table below MFR stands for Married Families Ratio, the proportion of families with own children headed by a married couple. “White” stands for all whites in 1950 and non-Hispanic white alone in 2010. “Black” stands for all nonwhites in 1950 and black alone in 2010.
|
|
MFR |
white MFR |
black MFR |
| 1950 Detroit | 91.0% | 93.3% | 77.6% |
| 2010 Detroit | 30.8% | 55.3% | 25.3% |
| 1950 D.C. | 86.4% | 90.2% | 79.0% |
| 2010 D.C. | 46.0% | 85.6% | 25.4% |
In 1950, 10.5% of the population was nonwhite (12.4% of the child population was nonwhite and 31.0% of the total population was children). New York then was 9.8% nonwhite, Los Angeles was 10.7%, Chicago was 14.1%, Houston was 21.1%, and Philadelphia was 18.3% nonwhite. In Los Angeles, among the 89.3% considered white 8.9% had a Spanish surname. In New York, among the 90.2% considered white 3.2% were Puerto Rican.
Below is the proportion of the population of each city that is under 18 and the racial composition of the child population for the year 2010:
|
|
Child |
White |
Black |
Hispanic |
Asian |
Mixed |
| United States | 24.0% | 53.5% | 14.6% | 23.1% | 4.4% | 5.6% |
| New York | 21.6% | 24.8% | 28.9% | 35.5% | 11.2% | 5.4% |
| Los Angeles | 23.1% | 16.8% | 9.2% | 64.8% | 6.9% | 6.4% |
| Chicago | 23.1% | 16.4% | 37.8% | 40.9% | 3.7% | 4.3% |
| Houston | 25.9% | 14.6% | 23.9% | 56.4% | 4.3% | 4.4% |
| Philadelphia | 22.5% | 22.2% | 52.3% | 18.5% | 5.6% | 4.9% |
| Phoenix | 28.2% | 30.2% | 6.9% | 56.3% | 2.6% | 6.1% |
| San Antonio | 26.8% | 16.9% | 6.9% | 73.4% | 2.0% | 5.1% |
| San Diego | 21.4% | 29.2% | 7.8% | 42.8% | 14.3% | 10.0% |
| Dallas | 26.5% | 14.5% | 24.6% | 57.8% | 2.0% | 3.8% |
| San Jose | 24.8% | 18.7% | 2.9% | 44.3% | 29.5% | 8.8% |
| Jacksonville | 23.9% | 43.1% | 38.5% | 10.0% | 4.2% | 5.9% |
| Indianapolis | 25.0% | 45.0% | 33.3% | 14.6% | 2.0% | 6.2% |
| San Francisco | 13.4% | 26.9% | 7.6% | 22.6% | 34.6% | 10.9% |
| Austin | 22.2% | 31.8% | 9.2% | 50.9% | 5.7% | 5.8% |
| Columbus | 23.2% | 44.0% | 37.3% | 8.8% | 3.4% | 7.4% |
| Fort Worth | 29.4% | 30.0% | 19.9% | 44.4% | 3.4% | 5.1% |
| Charlotte | 25.2% | 34.1% | 39.5% | 18.1% | 5.0% | 4.8% |
| Detroit | 26.7% | 4.4% | 82.6% | 9.7% | 1.0% | 3.2% |
| El Paso | 29.1% | 8.7% | 3.6% | 86.5% | 0.8% | 3.8% |
| Memphis | 26.0% | 15.9% | 72.0% | 8.9% | 1.3% | 2.4% |
| Baltimore | 21.5% | 16.2% | 74.7% | 5.2% | 1.2% | 3.6% |
| Boston | 16.8% | 23.1% | 37.3% | 30.1% | 7.0% | 7.2% |
| Seattle | 15.4% | 52.9% | 12.4% | 10.6% | 12.8% | 12.1% |
| D.C. | 16.8% | 17.4% | 66.4% | 11.9% | 1.6% | 4.4% |
| Nashville | 21.7% | 40.1% | 36.1% | 16.2% | 3.3% | 5.3% |
Among whites, the three best cities out of the largest 25 were Washington D. C., New York, and Chicago; the 3 worst were Detroit, Columbus, and Indianapolis. Among Hispanics the best city was Fort Worth and the worst was Boston; the Hispanics in Boston actually have a lower Married Parents Ratio than the black national average and Hispanic children make up 30% of all of Boston’s children.
Below is the Married Parents Ratio, the proportion of all own children under 18 who live with married parents, for the city overall and for each racial group in the city for the year 2010:
|
Total |
White |
Black |
Hispanic |
Asian |
Mixed |
|
| United States | 70.2% | 78.1% | 38.8% | 66.8% | 87.1% | 61.5% |
| New York | 62.4% | 86.3% | 37.8% | 49.0% | 87.8% | 60.1% |
| Los Angeles | 67.2% | 80.6% | 31.7% | 65.6% | 83.5% | 67.3% |
| Chicago | 58.2% | 85.1% | 26.1% | 68.1% | 85.8% | 63.3% |
| Houston | 63.9% | 80.2% | 34.5% | 68.6% | 86.3% | 64.3% |
| Philadelphia | 45.2% | 72.8% | 28.9% | 39.1% | 77.7% | 44.8% |
| Phoenix | 64.2% | 71.5% | 39.2% | 62.7% | 83.5% | 55.4% |
| San Antonio | 62.7% | 75.8% | 39.3% | 60.3% | 85.8% | 61.2% |
| San Diego | 73.1% | 81.1% | 49.2% | 66.4% | 84.6% | 71.0% |
| Dallas | 63.2% | 81.6% | 28.4% | 71.0% | 83.1% | 60.9% |
| San Jose | 77.9% | 82.1% | 51.6% | 68.9% | 88.7% | 73.1% |
| Jacksonville | 59.6% | 74.3% | 37.8% | 62.9% | 85.5% | 57.2% |
| Indianapolis | 55.3% | 69.4% | 31.5% | 62.5% | 87.4% | 45.8% |
| San Francisco | 75.8% | 83.0% | 25.6% | 65.3% | 85.4% | 72.2% |
| Austin | 69.0% | 79.5% | 33.0% | 64.7% | 90.0% | 64.2% |
| Columbus | 54.5% | 69.2% | 34.2% | 57.8% | 84.1% | 44.0% |
| Fort Worth | 69.5% | 79.6% | 40.2% | 73.2% | 85.6% | 66.1% |
| Charlotte | 64.6% | 84.9% | 40.2% | 67.0% | 87.9% | 58.4% |
| Detroit | 32.7% | 68.8% | 25.8% | 61.8% | 89.2% | 39.5% |
| El Paso | 65.1% | 76.4% | 54.7% | 63.9% | 82.2% | 63.0% |
| Memphis | 42.1% | 76.9% | 28.3% | 69.3% | 80.7% | 48.8% |
| Baltimore | 38.7% | 76.4% | 26.2% | 59.5% | 83.0% | 47.5% |
| Boston | 49.7% | 80.6% | 32.4% | 34.8% | 78.7% | 43.1% |
| Seattle | 74.4% | 82.2% | 48.3% | 64.2% | 76.5% | 66.7% |
| D.C. | 45.8% | 88.8% | 25.7% | 61.1% | 77.6% | 65.9% |
| Nashville | 59.8% | 76.3% | 34.3% | 69.1% | 81.5% | 55.4% |
Looking at the Married Parents Ratio, excluding the District of Columbia, the best state in the nation overall, by a wide margin, was Utah (at 83.8%); the worst was Mississippi (at 59.5%). Among whites, the best state was Utah (at 86.7%) and the worst was Maine (at 70.0%). Among blacks, the best state was Hawaii (at 73.0%) and the worst was Wisconsin (at 25.8%). Among Hispanics, the best state was Utah (at 73.0%) and the worst was Massachusetts (at 42.8%). Among Asians, the best state was New Jersey (at 92.7%) and the worst was Rhode Island (at 73.3%). Among those of mixed race the best state was Utah (at 74.3%) and the worst was Ohio (at 47.4%).
To look more closely at the state of Utah; Utah’s child population in 2010 was 871,027 (31.5% of the state’s total population). The racial composition of Utah’s children was 75.6% white, 1.3% black, 16.5% Hispanic, 1.5% Asian, and 4.9% mixed. The Married Parents Ratio of Utah’s racial groups were 86.7% for whites, 64.7% for blacks, 73.0% for Hispanics, 84.9% for Asians, and 74.3% among those of mixed race. All racial groups in Utah (except Asians) are far above their national averages.
Sources:
American FactFinder
DP-1, P012, P012I, P012B, P012H, P012D, P012G, P12, P12I, P12B, P12H, P12D, P12G, P31, P31I, P31B, P31H, P31D, P31G, P38, P38I, P38B, P38H, P38D, P38G
1950 Census
Vol. II. Characteristics of the Population
U.S. Summary
District of Columbia
Michigan
1950 Census
Vol. IV. Special Reports
Part 2. Family Characteristics
Part 3. National Origin and Race
