
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 10, 1994                   TAG: 9408100066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

AMERICAN FAMILY CLEARLY ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE

Look for the typical American family today and one thing you won't see is the Cleavers: Ward, June, Wally and the Beav.

Indeed, you may not be able to find any family that merits the description ``typical'' in today's United States.

Fewer than half of all American families have children, for example. And among those that do, nearly one in three has only one parent.

One thing hasn't changed, though: That one parent is usually Mom.

``The Ozzie and Harriet or Ward and June Cleaver family has probably never been a majority of American households at any time in the past, but it certainly has declined'' in recent decades, said census researcher Steve W. Rawlings.

``When we are asked what is the typical family, we usually waffle and say we don't define it,'' Rawlings said. ``Families come in many varieties.''

But the image of the two-parent family with children persists in the American mind, despite the trend away from that type of family.

The Census Bureau's annual analysis of households and families recorded 96.4 million households last year including 68.1 million family households. That means families constitute about 71 percent of households, down from 81 percent in 1970.

And of the 68.1 million families, 33.3 million had children under age 18, while the majority, 34.9 million, were childless.

In 1970, America had 51.5 million family households including 28.7 million with kids and 22.7 million without.

A family is two or more persons related by birth, marriage or adoption living together. A household consists of all the persons, related or not, occupying a housing unit.

There were 10.9 million single parents raising children last year, up from 3.8 million in 1970, according to the report. That included 9.3 million women and 1.6 million men, up from 3.4 million and 393,000 respectively.

The percentage of single-parent families headed by mothers - 86 - hasn't changed much since 1970, when they totaled 90 percent.

by CNB