Geek Out on Family Statistics with this New Website

If you are statistics geek like I am, you will love this new website from The Heritage Foundation called FamilyFacts.org (www.familyfacts.org) .

It is filled with charts, graphs, briefs, video and other content, all related to information about families in the United States.

According to the website, they offer over 3,000 findings about families and religious practices they have complied from scholarly journals and other papers.  The content is downloadable for your use in presentations or for research.

Categories include:

• Marriage and Family
• Sex and Childbearing
• Economic Well-Being
• Health
• Education
• Religious Practice
• Community Involvement
• Crime & Violence

The website contains all kinds of information such as the likelihood of reaching your 10-year wedding anniversary.  Did you know in 1960, 9 out of 10 kids lived with both of their parents? Now, 22.8% of children live with their mother only.

In 1935, 83.2% of women were married by age 25 (now you know why a 30-year-old was an “old maid”).  For men, 65.9% were married by this age. Today, just over half (50.2%) of women are married by age 25 and only 37.3% of men.

Close to 20% of the children in single mother families have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lives. Those living with both parents or in a father only home experience asthma in 11.6% of the homes.

Teenage drinking, while still high, has decreased significantly over the past 20 years. In 1991, almost 90% of high school  seniors had tried alcohol. That number has decreased to just under 75%. The survey does not note whether or not teens are using something else instead of alcohol to offset the alcohol use.

An interesting statistic that will be brought to Capital Hill by the Heritage Foundation this week is the fact that we spend significantly more than we did in 1970 on childhood education. In 1970, the expenditure per pupil was about $5,000 (in adjusted current dollars) and now it is over $11,000. The importance of this to our students is that their test scores and performance have not changed significantly, especially for math. Also, almost 17% of any dollar spent goes directly to administrative costs so students never actually see the money.

While 16.1% of Americans don’t claim any religious affiliation, 78.5% of Americans practice some form of Christianity.  Jews make up 1.7% and the balance, 3.7%, hold some other religious affiliation. Interesting to think about how often we talk about removing God from our society when almost 84% of us do believe in some sort of higher power.

To get all kinds of fun facts and interesting discussion points, please visit the new FamilyFacts.org for all kinds of great information.