Single-dad households reach record

Single fathers head a record number of American households with children, the Pew Research Center said in a report released Tuesday. The number of such households has undergone a ninefold increase in half a century, swelling to more than 2.6 million nationwide.

As of two years ago, single dads led 8 percent of U.S. households with kids, compared with just 1 percent in 1960, the Pew analysis of Census Bureau data found. Now single fathers make up nearly 1 in 4 single parents, but single mothers remain much more common.

Pew attributed the increase to many of the same things that ramped up single motherhood, including more children born outside of marriage and higher divorce rates since the 1960s and ’70s. Other experts have suggested that divorced and never-married fathers now have more chances to get custody of their children at least some of the time – and more interest in doing so. More.

A friend recently expressed the opinion that single dads are often admired— single moms not so much. Do you agree or disagree?