The Childless Neighborhood
June 6, 2011
THE PERCENTAGE of U.S. households with children has dropped from 36 percent in the 1960s to 24 percent today. USA Today recently looked at the impact on the Philadelphia suburb of Levittown. Where playing children were once a common sight, there are now empty streets and yards. The change is particularly glaring in predominantly white neighborhoods such as Levittown. When Levittown was at its heydey, and flush with children, the norm was the traditional family, with married women in the workforce in relatively low numbers. The more money white married women make, the fewer children they have. The U.S. population under 18 is 54 percent white. From 2000 to 2010, the U.S. population grew by 9.7 percent. Nonwhites made up 92 percent of that growth.
More U.S. households now have dogs than children.
