The proportion of households with children under 18, including both same-sex and opposite-sex couples — married and unmarried — has declined from 2019 to 2023, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). This trend reflects an ongoing decline in fertility rates across the United States.
The new ACS tables reveal that in 2023, married same-sex couples were more likely than their unmarried counterparts to have children in the household. However, the presence of children among married same-sex couples also saw a decrease, with 17% of such households reporting children in 2023, down from 19% in 2019. Married opposite-sex couples with children in the household similarly saw a statistical decline, though the percentage in both years was rounded to 38%.
Among unmarried couples, the share of households with children also dropped from 2019 to 2023, from 12% to 10% in same-sex households and from 36% to 34% in opposite-sex households.
The survey highlighted that female same-sex couple households were more likely to include children than male same-sex couples. In 2023, 25% of married female couples and 16% of unmarried female couples had children in the household, compared to only 9% of married and 3% of unmarried male couples. Overall, 21% of female couple households included a child, compared to just 6% of male couple households.
Other key findings from the ACS data include:
• Age and Employment: Same-sex married householders were younger on average (49 years) than opposite-sex married householders (53 years). Same-sex married households were more likely to have both partners employed (60%) compared to opposite-sex married households (50%).
• Income and Education: Same-sex male couples had a higher median household income ($134,000) than female couples ($104,400). A higher proportion of same-sex couples (32%) than opposite-sex unmarried couples (19%) had both partners holding at least a bachelor’s degree.
• Interracial Marriages: 31% of same-sex married couples were interracial, compared to 19% of opposite-sex married couples.
• Regional Differences: The District of Columbia had the highest percentage of same-sex couple households, with 3% of households in the area identifying as such.
The ACS survey methodology identifies only couples where the household member is identified as either married or unmarried to the householder, meaning not all cohabiting couples are included. The “households with children” classification encompasses households with biological, step, adopted, or nonrelative children under 18.
These findings offer insight into evolving household compositions and the economic and demographic differences across couple types in the United States. Further information on the Census Bureau’s methodology and changes in data collection for same-sex couples is available on their website.
