The American Household: Many Are Led by Parents With Low Education Levels

Par­ents who climb high­er on the aca­d­e­m­ic lad­der are more like­ly to have finan­cial­ly sta­ble fam­i­lies — and chil­dren who do well in school. High­er lev­els of parental edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment are strong­ly asso­ci­at­ed with pos­i­tive out­comes for children.

Yet, across America:

• 59% of kids live in a home led by an adult with a high-school diplo­ma or less.
• 14% of kids live in a home led by an adult who nev­er grad­u­at­ed high school.

Race and eth­nic­i­ty makes a dif­fer­ence. One in three Lati­no kids live in a home led by some­one who hasn’t grad­u­at­ed high school. Low edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment among Lati­no par­ents is dri­ven pri­mar­i­ly by weak edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment pri­or to arrival in the Unit­ed States and lan­guage bar­ri­ers. This rate is sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er for all oth­er racial and eth­nic groups measured.

Explore more edu­ca­tion data — at the state and nation­al lev­el — in the KIDS COUNT Data Center.

• Chil­dren by house­hold head’s edu­ca­tion­al attainment
• Chil­dren in fam­i­lies where the house­hold head lacks a high school diplo­ma by race and ethnicity
• Chil­dren whose par­ents all have less than a high school degree by fam­i­ly nativity
• Chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies in which res­i­dent par­ents have less than a 9^th grade education