TOP 10 Countries by Share of Children in Single-Parent Households (2025)
Children in single-parent households are those aged 0–17 who live primarily with just one parent (biological, step or adoptive), even if other adults such as grandparents also share the dwelling. The OECD Family Database and related compilations show large cross-country differences: in some states more than one in four children live with a single parent, while in others the share is below 10 percent.
Table 1. Children living with a single parent, TOP 10 countries (latest ≈2021–2023, % of all children 0–17)
3-column table • mobile-friendly cards| Rank | Country | Children 0–17 living with a single parent (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lithuania | 27.9 |
| 2 | United States | 26.8 |
| 3 | Latvia | 26.6 |
| 4 | Luxembourg | 26.3 |
| 5 | Belgium | 25.5 |
| 6 | Mexico | 24.5 |
| 7 | Malta | 24.4 |
| 8 | Norway | 24.0 |
| 9 | United Kingdom | 21.0 |
| 10 | Estonia | 20.5 |
Notes: Values are indicative and compiled from the OECD Family Database, Our World in Data and recent cross-country summaries for 2021–2023; they are interpreted here as a snapshot for around 2025. Lithuania, Luxembourg and the United States consistently appear at or near the top in recent datasets, with Latvia, Belgium and Malta also posting very high shares.
High shares of children in single-parent households do not automatically imply negative outcomes, but they do signal important policy challenges: lone-parent families are more exposed to income poverty, housing stress and time pressure, especially where social transfers and childcare services are weak. UNICEF estimates that, across high-income countries, children in lone-parent families are more than three times as likely to live in income poverty as other children.
At the same time, these statistics reflect broader social change: higher divorce rates, more non-marital births, delayed and less universal marriage, and greater acceptance of diverse family forms. In countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, the share of children living with a single parent has more than doubled since the 1960s.
Table 2. Children in single-parent households, by sex of parent (approximate % distribution, latest data)
Most single-parent households are headed by mothers. Across OECD and EU countries, around 80–90 percent of children in single-parent families live with their mother, and only a minority live with their father. In the United States, for example, about four out of five single-parent families are mother-headed.
| Country | Children with single mother (% of children in single-parent households) | Children with single father (% of children in single-parent households) |
|---|---|---|
| Lithuania | 87 | 13 |
| United States | 85 | 15 |
| Latvia | 88 | 12 |
| Luxembourg | 84 | 16 |
| Belgium | 86 | 14 |
| Mexico | 89 | 11 |
| Malta | 86 | 14 |
| Norway | 82 | 18 |
| United Kingdom | 84 | 16 |
| Estonia | 88 | 12 |
Notes: Shares by sex of parent are indicative and based on patterns described in OECD, Eurostat and national statistics (e.g. US Census Bureau). In almost all countries, single-mother households are much more common than single-father households.
What drives the rise in children living with a single parent?
1. Changing partnership and fertility patterns. Rising divorce rates, more births outside marriage and later, less universal marriage all contribute to more children living in single-parent families. In high-income countries, these trends have unfolded over several decades, and the increase in lone-parent families has been particularly steep since the 1970s.
2. Gender roles and labour markets. As women’s education and employment rates increase, more mothers can support a household on their own, at least in principle. However, single mothers still face higher risks of low income and time poverty, especially where childcare is limited or expensive.
3. Social policy and protection systems. In Nordic and some Western European countries with generous family benefits, parental leave and subsidised childcare, single-parent families are better cushioned against poverty than in countries where support is mostly means-tested and modest. UNICEF and OECD work shows that lone-parent families are consistently overrepresented among poor households, but the magnitude of this penalty varies widely by welfare regime.
4. Norms and stigma. In societies where single parenthood is strongly stigmatised, lone-parent families may be more invisible in official statistics, and children may be classified under wider kin arrangements. Where norms are more inclusive, lone-parent families are more likely to be recognised and supported – but they may also be more common.
Chart 1. Children living with a single parent, TOP 10 countries (latest %, bar chart)
This bar chart ranks countries by the estimated percentage of children aged 0–17 who live with a single parent. It highlights how Lithuania, the United States, Latvia and Luxembourg stand out with values close to or above 26–28 percent.
Chart 2. Long-term trend: children in single-parent households, 1990–2023 (selected countries)
The line chart below shows how the share of children living with a single parent has changed over roughly three decades in Lithuania, the United States and Mexico. All three have seen clear upward trends, with particularly strong growth in Lithuania after the 1990s and in Mexico since the 2000s.
Note: Time-series values are stylised to reflect the direction and approximate magnitude of change seen in OECD and Our World in Data series between about 1990 and the early 2020s; they are not official country-reported points for each year.
Data sources and further reading
Primary statistical sources and analytical references:
- OECD Family Database – Children in Families (indicator SF1.2 / SF1.3). Methodological note & tables (PDF)
- Our World in Data – “Share of children living with a single parent” (based on OECD Family Database). Interactive dataset
- Pew Research Center (2019). “U.S. children more likely than children in other countries to live with just one parent.” Article & data
- ReportLinker (2023). “Global Children (0–17) Living with a Single Parent by Country” and “European share of children living with a single parent.” Global ranking, EU ranking
- UNICEF Innocenti & latest “State of the World’s Children” / rich-country report cards. Lone-parent families and child poverty. Rich countries report card
- Eurostat, “Households with children – single-parent households”. Statistical news release
- U.S. Census Bureau & Niussp (2025). National data and analysis on single-parent households and “missing fathers”. Single Parent Day stats, Niussp article
