Fewer Young Parents in America, But Millions — Including Their Children — Still Need Support

The share of youth and young adults ages 18 to 24 who are par­ents in the Unit­ed States has been declin­ing for decades, with a recent drop from 10% in 2006–2010 to 6% in 2018–2022. The num­ber of young par­ents has fall­en accord­ing­ly, from 3.2 mil­lion to 1.8 mil­lion in the same time peri­od. The lat­est data in the KIDS COUNT^® Data Cen­ter also show that the share of young par­ents declined for all racial and eth­nic groups — with fig­ures falling by 50% for Black and Lati­no young adults and by 44% for Amer­i­can Indi­ans or Alas­ka Natives — and for all states from 2006–2010 to 2018–2022.

Cross-sec­tor efforts have been focused on reduc­ing unplanned preg­nan­cy among youth for many years, and these strate­gies are work­ing. How­ev­er, while the share of young par­ents is decreas­ing, the nation still has near­ly 2 mil­lion teens and young adults, ages 18 to 24, with chil­dren who need sup­port nav­i­gat­ing the dif­fi­cult tran­si­tions to adult­hood and par­ent­hood. Of course, this fig­ure does not cap­ture the addi­tion­al teen par­ents under age 18 who need sup­port, as well. 

A report on young par­ents by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion described com­mon chal­lenges for this group, includ­ing finan­cial and hous­ing insta­bil­i­ty, inter­rupt­ed edu­ca­tion, employ­ment obsta­cles, par­ent­ing stress, health issues and dif­fi­cul­ty access­ing qual­i­ty child care and health care. The report also found that 3.4 mil­lion U.S. chil­dren live with par­ents ages 18 to 24, and near­ly 40% of them (most­ly infants, tod­dlers and preschool­ers) live in poverty.

Research indi­cates that pro­vid­ing sup­port to young fam­i­lies at this vul­ner­a­ble time could yield life­long ben­e­fits. Both young par­ents and their young chil­dren are going through crit­i­cal phas­es of brain devel­op­ment, mak­ing this a key oppor­tu­ni­ty to sup­port both groups as they mature cog­ni­tive­ly. Pol­i­cy­mak­ers and oth­ers can help ensure that these par­ents have con­nec­tions with car­ing adults and men­tors, edu­ca­tion­al and work­force train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, access to qual­i­ty health care and child care, paid time off from work and oth­er basic forms of sup­port, set­ting them on a path toward fam­i­ly and eco­nom­ic stability.

Young Par­ent Data by State and Territory

At the state lev­el in 2018–2022, the share of young par­ents, ages 18 to 24, ranged from 2% in Rhode Island to 10% in Arkansas. While the per­cent­age of young par­ents decreased in all states between 2006–2010 and 2018–2022, the declines were espe­cial­ly pro­nounced in Alas­ka, Ida­ho and New Mex­i­co.

This fig­ure dropped in Puer­to Rico, as well, from 13% to 6% dur­ing this timeframe.

Local, state and nation­al lead­ers can build on this momen­tum by con­tin­u­ing to pro­mote efforts to reduce unplanned preg­nan­cy and bol­ster­ing sup­port for young par­ents and their chil­dren, giv­ing par­tic­u­lar con­sid­er­a­tion to the per­spec­tives of par­ents them­selves, the needs of fathers in addi­tion to moth­ers, the needs of par­ents involved in the fos­ter care and jus­tice sys­tems and oppor­tu­ni­ties to advance racial equity.

Con­tin­ue Learn­ing About Young Parents

See trends on young par­ents in immi­grant fam­i­lies, and explore all data about youth and young adults in the KIDS COUNT Data Center. 

Also, learn more about the chal­lenges fac­ing young par­ents and pol­i­cy, pro­gram and edu­ca­tion­al solu­tions to sup­port them in these Foun­da­tion resources: 

• Open­ing Doors for Young Parents

• Resources Offer New Strate­gies for Sup­port­ing Young Parents

• Answers — and Help — for Young Par­ents, Prac­ti­tion­ers and Policymakers
  

Sign up for our newslet­ters to get the lat­est data, reports and oth­er resources