Statistics and Facts about Raising a Family, Children and Parenthood:

71%:  Percentage of women with children under the age of 18 who are in the labor force.  Compare that to 47% in 1975.  NOTE - in 2008, 60% of women with children under age 3 were in the labor force.

SOURCE:  U.S. Census Bureau

1 in 100:  Ratio of 8-year-olds who have received a diagnosisof autism spectrum disorder.  This is up from an estimated 1 in 150 two years ago.

SOURCE:  CDC

5 Billion Hours:  Amount of time the world's children spend playing with LEGO bricks per year.

SOURCE:  LEGO

44%:  Percentage of Mississippi children who are overweight or obese - the hightest in the nation.

SOURCE:  TIME July 13, 2009 quoting recent study

$291,570:  Average cost for a middle-income family in the U.S. to raise a child born in 2008 to age 18.

SOURCE:  U.S. Department of Agriculture study*

11.5%: Average percentage that the regular coupon user saves his/her family per grocery or shopping bill with the use of discounts and coupons – savings of $7.50 per trip.

SOURCE:  Industry research (Carolina Manufacturer's Service Consumer Study) reported by ABC News contributor, Stephanie Nelson, a.k.a. “The Coupon Mom”

53%: Percentage of consumers who say they regularly visit brand Web sites to find promotions for their families. 

SOURCE:  Recent study by comScore, an Internet information provider that tracks consumer behavior as reported on Jan. 14^th, 2008 via MarketWatch through Yahoo Finance.

56%:  Percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in school in October 2006.

Source: School Enrollment – Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 2006

72%: Percentage of children 3 to 6 enrolled in kindergarten who attended all day, as of October 2006.

Source: School Enrollment – Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 2006

11%:  Projected percentage of elementary through high school students enrolled in private schools this fall.

Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2009, Table 211

63%:  Percentage of children younger than 6 living with married parents who were praised three or more times a day by their fathers. The corresponding number for children living with unmarried fathers was 57 percent.

Source: A Child’s Day 

64%:  Percentage of children younger than 6 living with married parents who ate dinner with their fathers every day. The corresponding number for children living with unmarried fathers was 66 percent.

79%:  The percentage of children who ate dinner with their mothers every day.

Source: A Child’s Day 

30%:  Percentage of children younger than 6 living with married parents in 2003 who ate breakfast with their fathers every day. The corresponding number for children living with unmarried fathers was 41 percent.

54%:  The percentage of children who ate breakfast with their mothers every day.

Source: A Child’s Day

85%:  Among the 30.2 million fathers living with children younger than 18, the percentage who lived with their biological children only. In addition, 11 percent lived with stepchildren, 4 percent with adopted children and fewer than 1 percent with foster children.

94%:  Among the 37.8 million mothers living with children younger than 18, the percentage who lived with their biological children only. In addition, 3 percent lived with stepchildren, 2 percent with adopted children and less than 1 percent with foster children.

Source: Living Arrangements of Children: 2004

25%:  Among the nation’s 11.3 million preschoolers whose mothers are employed, the percentage who are regularly cared for by their father during their mother’s working hours. This amounted to 2.9 million children.

Source: Who’s Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 2005

History of Father's Day:  According to the U.S. Census Bureau:  "The idea of Father’s Day was conceived by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Wash., while she listened to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm. A day in June was chosen for the first Father’s Day celebration — June 19, 1910, proclaimed by Spokane’s mayor because it was the month of Smart’s birth. The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Father’s Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent."

26.5 million:  Number of fathers who are part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2006.  22 percent are raising three or more children younger than 18 (among married-couple family households only).

Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2006

History of Mother's Day:  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, "The driving force behind Mother’s Day was Anna Jarvis, who organized observances in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. As the annual celebration became popular around the country, Jarvis asked members of Congress to set aside a day to honor mothers. She finally succeeded in 1914, when Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day."

82.8 million:  Estimated number of mothers in the United States in 2004.

Source: Survey of Income and Program Participation unpublished tabulations

81%:   Percentage of women 40 to 44 who are mothers. In 1976, 90 percent of women in that age group were mothers.

Source: Fertility of American Women 

5.6 million:  Number of stay-at-home mothers nationwide in 2007, up from 4.6 million a decade earlier. 

Source: Families and Living Arrangements: 2007

 *Since the 1960s the Family Economics Research Group of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided estimates on the cost of rearing a child. The estimates are calculated per child in a household with two children and are categorized by the age of the child using different family income levels. Attorneys and judges use these estimates in determining child-support awards in divorce cases as well as cases involving the wrongful death of a parent. Public officials use the estimates to determine payments for the support of children in foster care and for subsidies to adoptive families. Financial planners and consumer educators use them in helping people determine their life insurance needs.

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