Fewer than half of U.S. households in 2025 were married couples, according to new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s America’s Families and Living Arrangements tables. This marks a notable change from 1975, when nearly two-thirds of households consisted of married couples.
The data also indicate that among married-couple households, the proportion with their own children has decreased over the past fifty years. In 1975, more than half (54%) of these households included their own children under age 18; by 2025, this figure had dropped to about 37%.
Single-person households have become more common as well. In 2025, there were 39.7 million one-person households, making up 29% of all households—an increase from 20% in 1975.
There has also been an increase in older householders. The share of householders aged 65 and older rose from one in five in 1975 to over one in four by 2025.
Other findings show that the percentage of families with their own children under age 18 declined from 54% in 1975 to 39% in 2025. The estimated median age at first marriage rose to 30.8 for men and 28.4 for women in 2025, compared with ages 23.5 and 21.1 respectively fifty years earlier.
In terms of living arrangements for young adults, more than half (58%) of those ages 18 to 24 lived with their parents in 2025, while only about sixteen percent of adults ages twenty-five to thirty-four did so.
These statistics are based on data collected by the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) for both years cited. The CPS ASEC has been gathering information on families for over sixty years.
The Census Bureau provides additional details on household characteristics and living arrangements through its Families and Living Arrangements resource at census.gov.
Definitions, confidentiality protection measures, methodology explanations, and information about sampling error can be found within the technical documentation provided by the Census Bureau at https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/techdocs/cpsmar25.pdf.
According to the release: “All comparative statements have undergone statistical testing, and, unless otherwise noted, all comparisons are statistically significant at the ten percent significance level.”
