When it comes to family arrangements, the United States has a North-South divide. As The New York Times reports, children growing up across much of the northern part of the country are much more likely to grow up with two parents than their southern counterparts..
Louisiana has the nation’s second lowest share of its children living in homes with their biological and married parents, at 36%. Mississippi has the lowest share, at 32%. Louisiana is trailed by Arkansas (37%), Alabama (38%), Nevada, South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma and New Mexico (all tied at 39%).
By contrast, Utah is home to America’s highest share of children being raised in a two-parent home, at 57%. Minnesota follows (56%), trailed by Nebraska (55%), New Jersey (54%), New Hampshire and North Dakota (tied at 53%).
The new geographic analysis comes from W. Bradford Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociologist, and Nicholas Zill, a psychologist. They say they conducted the analysis after reading recent New York Times articles on upward mobility and marriage—and realizing that the geography of American family was somewhat different from the conventional wisdom.
“These patterns—which come from a new analysis of census data—are important because evidence suggests that children usually benefit from growing up with two parents,” reports The Times. “It’s probably not a coincidence, for instance, that the states with more two-parent families also have higher rates of upward mobility.”
The Times concludes the data is “another sign that the North is faring better, on average, than the South today, whether the yardstick is income, education, life expectancy or family structure.”
Read the full story and see an interactive map of the U.S. and its share of two-parent households by state.
