A new study showing the United States has the world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households is being called a “national tragedy” by one sociologist.
The Pew Research Center study of 130 countries and territories shows that 23 percent of U.S. children under the age of 18 live with one parent and no other adults – more than three times the global average of 7 percent.
By comparison, 3 percent of children in China, 4 percent in Nigeria, 5 percent in India and 15 percent in Canada live in single-parent households, according to the Pew study.
Glenn T. Stanton, director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family, called the data “disturbing.” Sadly, he said, it is largely “those in the lower half of the socio-economic scale that live in single-parent homes” and have “babies outside of wedlock.”
“These numbers are growing dramatically for the high school educated and declining for those with college and advanced degrees,” Stanton told Christian Headlines. “This means that the kinds of families they are forming will serve to trap them in the underclass, making it nearly impossible to climb to higher social rungs. This has long been a national tragedy.”
Children in European countries are generally more likely to live in single-parent homes than those in Asia, but still less likely than children in the U.S. The percentages for the…
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