USA Single Parent Male Families On the Rise

The number of Single Male Parent Families is on the rise in the USA. The Pew Foundation released an analysis in 2013 that describes a 7% increase in households headed by a single father. The number as of 2011 stood at 8.6 million, up from 1.9 million in 1960. Somewhere in the late 1960’s I remember The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, a short lived TV series. Back then only 14% of single parent households were male. The number stands at 24%.

Viewing these statistics on the attached thematic map, we can see the zip codes in blue denoting those zip codes where single father families out-number single mother families greater than 1 to 1. Pew points out changing divorce laws mean more Dads are retaining custody of children. Additionally, the traditional role of father and mother in the USA is gradually shifting such that Dads are less income providers and more often care givers.

By adding demographic data to the zip code layer and filtering you can see the highest ratios in the USA of male to Female single family households exist in Trinity County CA. The only reason we can find for this is that the male population is unusually high in two of those zip codes – mainly Hyampom and Hayfork.