INTRODUCTION

Although many data

sources describe the living arrangements and

characteristics of children in general, few are

large enough to permit

the analysis of children

by whether they are the

biological, adopted, or

stepchildren of the

householder. Census

2000 included “adopted

son/daughter” for the

first time in the decennial census as a category of relationship to the

householder separate

from “natural born

son/daughter” and

“stepson/stepdaughter”

(Figure 1).1 The adoption category includes

various types of adoption, such as: adoption

of biologically related

and unrelated children,

adoption of stepchildren, adoption through

private and public agencies, domestic and international adoptions, and independent and informal

adoptions. Census 2000 is the principal

source of data on adopted children and

their families on a national level.2 See the

Other Sources of Data and Data Quality

sections of this report for more information about national level data on adopted

children and stepchildren.

This report presents information on the

characteristics of the 2.1 million adopted

children and 4.4 million stepchildren of

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U

Helping You Make Informed Decisions

U.S.Department of Commerce

Economics and Statistics Administration

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

Issued October 2003

CENSR-6RV

Adopted Children and

Stepchildren: 2000

Census 2000 Special Reports

By 

Figure 1. Rose M. Kreider

Reproduction of the Question on 

Relationship to Householder 

from Census 2000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 questionnaire.

Husband/wife

Natural-born son/daughter

Adopted son/daughter

Stepson/stepdaughter

Brother/sister

Father/mother

Grandchild

Parent-in-law

Son-in-law/daughter-in-law

Roomer, boarder

Housemate, roommate

Unmarried partner

Foster child

Other nonrelative

If NOT RELATED to Person 1:

Other relative — Print exact relationship.

2 How is this person related to Person 1? 

Mark ONE box. x

1 The “householder” is a person in whose name

the housing unit is owned, being bought, or rented. 2 The National Adoption Information

Clearinghouse, a service of the Children’s Bureau of

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’

Administration for Children and Families, states that

there is no current public or private attempt to collect

comprehensive national data on adoption, despite

sporadic attempts over the last 50 years (See

www.calib.com/naic/stats).
2 U.S. Census Bureau

householders as estimated from

the Census 2000 sample, which

collected data from approximately

1 out of every 6 households.

Together, these children represented approximately 8 percent of the

84 million sons and daughters of

householders in 2000. 

HOW ARE CHILDREN

IDENTIFIED IN CENSUS

2000?

Biological children, adopted children, and stepchildren are identified in Census 2000 by the answer

to the question, “How is this person related to person 1?” Person 1

is always the householder: someone who owns or rents the home.

The results shown in this report

reflect only people who were identified as children of the householder and were living in the household at the time of the census,

rather than all children currently

living with their parents. For

example, if a married couple lived

in the household of one of their

parents, their children would be

reported as the grandchildren of

the householder. Because of situations like this, Census 2000 data

cannot provide a comprehensive

count of all adopted children and

stepchildren in the United States.3

At the same time, national-level

data on adopted children and

stepchildren are rare, and the large

sample size of Census 2000 makes

it the most complete data source

on the characteristics of these children and their families and households. The Other Sources of Data

section of this report describes

several other sources of data on

adoption and adopted children.

Because people may have different

understandings of what constitutes

an “adoptive” or “step” parent-child

relationship, Census 2000 data

include a variety of types of adoptive and step relationships. These

data do not define whether an

adoption was of a relative or a

nonrelative, or whether the child

was adopted through a public

agency, a private agency, or

independently. Because of this, we

cannot distinguish among children

who were adopted by their stepparents, children adopted by their

biological grandparents or other

relatives, and children adopted by

other people to whom they are not

biologically related.4 Since Census

2000 respondents selected from

the relationship categories shown

in Figure 1, people recorded as

adopted children of the householder may not necessarily be legally

adopted. 

Informal adoptions are more common among some cultural groups

than others, as people differ widely in the way they view family relationships and the process of adoption. For example, a qualitative

study prepared for the U.S. Census

Bureau found that informal

Table 1.

Number of Children of Householder by Type of Relationship and Age: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Relationship Total, all

ages

Under 18 years 18 years and over

Total Under 6 6 to 11 12 to 14 15 to 17 Total 18 to 24

25 and

over

Total children of

householder .......... 83,714,107 64,651,959 20,120,106 22,803,985 11,200,237 10,527,631 19,062,148 11,185,934 7,876,214

Adopted children ...... 2,058,915 1,586,004 389,296 598,326 316,636 281,746 472,911 273,957 198,954

Stepchildren .......... 4,384,581 3,292,301 328,378 1,271,122 847,130 845,671 1,092,280 778,441 313,839

Biological children ..... 77,270,611 59,773,654 19,402,432 20,934,537 10,036,471 9,400,214 17,496,957 10,133,536 7,363,421

Percent of age group . . . 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Adopted children . . . . . . 2.5 2.5 1.9 2.6 2.8 2.7 2.5 2.4 2.5

Stepchildren . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 5.1 1.6 5.6 7.6 8.0 5.7 7.0 4.0

Biological children ..... 92.3 92.5 96.4 91.8 89.6 89.3 91.8 90.6 93.5

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.

3 It is estimated that Census 2000 may

have identified only about two-thirds of all

stepchildren living with at least one stepparent because of the manner in which the data

were collected. For this reason, characteristics of the stepchildren shown in this report

may not represent all stepchildren. See the

Data Quality section of this report. 

The text of this report discusses data for

the United States, including the 50 states

and the District of Columbia. Data for the

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are shown in

Table 2 and Figure 3. 

4 An estimate for 1992, made from court

records, was that about 42 percent of all

adoptions were by stepparents or a relative.

See Victor Flango and Carol Flango. “How

Many Children Were Adopted in 1992,” Child

Welfare, 1995, Vol. LXXIV, No. 5 (Sept.-Oct.),

pp. 1018-1024. A 1996 survey of all 50

states and the District of Columbia conducted by the National Council for Adoption,

estimated that 50 percent of domestic adoptions were by someone related to the child,

including stepparents. See Paul J. Placek.

“National Adoption Data,” Adoption Factbook

III, National Council for Adoption:

Washington, DC. 1999. pp 24-68.
adoption of biological grandchildren was common in Inupiaq communities in Alaska.5 Informal

adoptions are also more common

among Blacks and Hispanics.6

In a similar manner, in Census

2000, householders who listed

stepchildren as living in their

households may not always be

married to the person who is the

biological parent of the stepchild.

Most of the 271,000 unmarried

male householders who reported

having stepchildren in their households also had a female unmarried

partner (198,000). It seems unlikely that so many men would have

the biological child of their former

spouse living with them, and more

likely that the “stepchild” is the

biological child of the unmarried

partner with whom they are currently living. Since the English language does not have a more precise word to describe this kind of

relationship, some respondents

may have decided to report their

partner’s child as their stepchild,

even though they are not married

to the child’s biological parent.

HOW MANY ADOPTED

CHILDREN AND

STEPCHILDREN OF THE

HOUSEHOLDER ARE THERE?

In 2000, 1.6 million adopted children of the householder were under

age 18, making up 2.5 percent of

all children of the householder

under 18 (see Table 1). An additional 473,000 adopted children of

the householder were aged 18 and

over, again representing 2.5 percent

of all children of the householder of

that age group. In 2000, there

were more than twice as many

stepchildren (4.4 million) as adopted children (2.1 million),7 with

stepchildren representing 5 percent

of children of the householder. 

The distribution of children in different age groups by type of relationship reveals marked differences

associated with how the children

became members of the household.

The age distribution of biological

children of the householder up to

age 18 is primarily a consequence

of the number of babies born each

year, which has been relatively constant since the early 1980s.8 As a

result, the proportions of biological

children in each of the three 6-year

age groups shown in Figure 2 differ

slightly (25 to 27 percent).

Percentages were smaller for both

adopted children (19 percent) and

stepchildren (8 percent) than for

biological children (25 percent)

under 6 years compared with the

older age groups (see Figure 2).

These differences probably reflect

U.S. Census Bureau 3

Figure 2.

Percent Distribution of Children of the Householder 

by Type of Relationship and Age: 2000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, 

sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see 

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Adopted children Stepchildren Biological children

18 and over

12 to 17

6 to 11

Under 6

22.6

18.9

29.1

29.1

23.0

7.5

29.0

38.6

24.9

25.1

27.1

25.2

5 Amy Craver. “Complex Inupiaq Eskimo

Households and Relationships in Two

Northwest Alaska Rural Communities,” Alaska

Native Science Commission. University of

Alaska, Anchorage, 2001. 6 See Christine A. Bachrach, Kathryn A.

London, and Penelope L. Maza. “On the Path

to Adoption: Adoption Seeking in the United

States, 1988,” Journal of Marriage and the

Family. 1991, Vol. 53, pp. 705-718; and

Debra Kalmuss. “Adoption and Black Teenagers: The Viability of a Pregnancy Resolution

Strategy,” Journal of Marriage and the Family,

1992, Vol. 54, pp. 485-495; and Maria Suarez

Hamm. “Latino Adoption Issues,” Adoption

Factbook III. National Council for Adoption:

Washington, DC, 1999, pp. 257-260.

7 The estimates in this report are based on

responses from a sample of the population.

As with all surveys, estimates may vary from

the actual values because of sampling variation or other factors. All comparisons made

in this report have undergone statistical testing and are significant at the 90-percent confidence level unless otherwise noted. 8 After age 18, leaving home for school,

jobs, military service, or to start a household

strongly affects the number of children living

with their parents, regardless of the type of

parent-child relationship. 
4 U.S. Census Bureau

Table 2.

Number and Percent of Children of the Householder by Type of Relationship for the

United States, Regions, and States, and for Puerto Rico: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Area Total

children of

householder

Under 18 years 18 years and over

Total under

18 years

Adopted children Stepchildren Biological children

Adopted

children

StepchildrenBiological

Number children

Percent NumberPercent NumberPercent

United States 83,714,107 64,651,959 1,586,004 2.5 3,292,301 5.1 59,773,654 92.5 472,911 1,092,280 17,496,957

Region

Northeast....... 15,966,707 11,793,062 284,242 2.4 392,629 3.3 11,116,191 94.3 94,409 178,845 3,900,391

Midwest . . . ..... 19,304,860 15,234,402 389,096 2.6 794,509 5.2 14,050,797 92.2 103,303 240,760 3,726,395

South .......... 29,194,157 22,576,013 548,297 2.4 1,372,665 6.1 20,655,051 91.5 170,876 425,354 6,021,914

West. . . . . . . . . . . 19,248,383 15,048,482 364,369 2.4 732,498 4.9 13,951,615 92.7 104,323 247,321 3,848,257

State

Alabama ....... 1,310,310 995,282 24,944 2.5 67,226 6.8 903,112 90.7 8,488 20,185 286,355

Alaska ......... 206,852 175,315 6,910 3.9 10,395 5.9 158,010 90.1 1,474 1,971 28,092

Arizona . . ...... 1,499,746 1,197,953 28,966 2.4 65,857 5.5 1,103,130 92.1 8,412 19,565 273,816

Arkansas ....... 763,410 604,462 15,973 2.6 51,579 8.5 536,910 88.8 4,393 12,281 142,274

California. . ..... 10,561,507 8,027,573 167,190 2.1 335,760 4.2 7,524,623 93.7 54,516 137,137 2,342,281

Colorado ....... 1,221,797 1,006,573 29,438 2.9 55,097 5.5 922,038 91.6 6,386 14,667 194,171

Connecticut..... 1,005,700 775,214 19,239 2.5 25,378 3.3 730,597 94.2 4,989 10,533 214,964

Delaware....... 224,792 172,427 3,452 2.0 8,265 4.8 160,710 93.2 1,276 3,301 47,788

District of

Columbia. . . . . . 129,440 87,890 2,649 3.0 1,870 2.1 83,371 94.9 1,105 1,298 39,147

Florida ......... 4,194,729 3,204,362 82,179 2.6 182,391 5.7 2,939,792 91.7 27,052 65,609 897,706

Georgia ........ 2,452,510 1,903,475 49,194 2.6 118,721 6.2 1,735,560 91.2 14,139 37,669 497,227

Hawaii ......... 353,159 238,287 6,941 2.9 9,664 4.1 221,682 93.0 2,917 4,152 107,803

Idaho . . ........ 408,521 344,494 9,562 2.8 21,649 6.3 313,283 90.9 1,946 5,034 57,047

Illinois.......... 3,824,955 2,886,152 73,638 2.6 121,241 4.2 2,691,273 93.2 21,819 47,778 869,206

Indiana......... 1,808,429 1,441,338 37,004 2.6 96,497 6.7 1,307,837 90.7 10,194 26,335 330,562

Iowa ........... 834,338 688,589 18,569 2.7 37,030 5.4 632,990 91.9 3,983 8,872 132,894

Kansas......... 796,248 662,249 19,733 3.0 41,068 6.2 601,448 90.8 4,286 8,884 120,829

Kentucky ....... 1,166,663 906,933 20,661 2.3 61,112 6.7 825,160 91.0 6,067 17,453 236,210

Louisiana....... 1,407,726 1,051,564 22,827 2.2 66,997 6.4 961,740 91.5 8,259 20,734 327,169

Maine.......... 343,588 280,763 7,137 2.5 14,345 5.1 259,281 92.3 1,786 3,988 57,051

Maryland . . ..... 1,576,113 1,197,553 32,269 2.7 50,985 4.3 1,114,299 93.0 9,609 22,156 346,795

Massachusetts . . 1,850,225 1,383,945 35,647 2.6 36,899 2.7 1,311,399 94.8 11,525 17,986 436,769

Michigan ....... 3,046,209 2,356,202 61,232 2.6 122,038 5.2 2,172,932 92.2 17,165 41,648 631,194

Minnesota ...... 1,478,812 1,215,739 31,378 2.6 49,522 4.1 1,134,839 93.3 7,181 13,248 242,644

Mississippi...... 886,323 660,190 16,300 2.5 44,414 6.7 599,476 90.8 5,802 13,743 206,588

Missouri........ 1,635,329 1,300,281 33,156 2.5 82,974 6.4 1,184,151 91.1 8,802 23,916 302,330

Montana ....... 255,301 212,401 6,803 3.2 12,321 5.8 193,277 91.0 1,386 2,609 38,905

Nebraska....... 507,177 421,429 11,812 2.8 19,903 4.7 389,714 92.5 2,698 4,488 78,562

Nevada . ....... 561,558 452,493 10,588 2.3 29,919 6.6 411,986 91.0 3,226 8,831 97,008

New Hampshire . 358,340 290,564 6,864 2.4 13,074 4.5 270,626 93.1 1,702 4,486 61,588

New Jersey..... 2,600,871 1,881,428 42,614 2.3 57,172 3.0 1,781,642 94.7 16,320 31,576 671,547

New Mexico .... 568,987 447,024 11,764 2.6 25,880 5.8 409,380 91.6 3,007 6,407 112,549

New York. . . . . . . 5,768,499 4,153,245 100,736 2.4 120,112 2.9 3,932,397 94.7 35,577 61,241 1,518,436

North Carolina . . 2,229,789 1,753,973 42,911 2.4 103,062 5.9 1,608,000 91.7 11,388 29,397 435,031

North Dakota . . . 182,579 152,943 3,647 2.4 6,619 4.3 142,677 93.3 953 1,301 27,382

Ohio ........... 3,384,920 2,643,807 62,653 2.4 148,767 5.6 2,432,387 92.0 17,680 46,413 677,020

Oklahoma . . . . . . 989,854 798,929 23,518 2.9 63,632 8.0 711,779 89.1 6,463 15,372 169,090

Oregon......... 940,376 770,173 23,901 3.1 46,559 6.0 699,713 90.9 6,213 13,373 150,617

Pennsylvania . . . 3,566,476 2,659,562 62,328 2.3 110,611 4.2 2,486,623 93.5 19,823 44,126 842,965

Rhode Island . . . 304,639 229,017 5,496 2.4 8,423 3.7 215,098 93.9 1,767 3,338 70,517

South Carolina . . 1,158,863 881,583 22,027 2.5 52,353 5.9 807,203 91.6 7,484 15,748 254,048

South Dakota . . . 222,873 186,772 5,691 3.0 8,886 4.8 172,195 92.2 1,155 1,774 33,172

Tennessee. . . . . . 1,619,371 1,244,838 30,980 2.5 87,747 7.0 1,126,111 90.5 9,791 26,280 338,462

Texas .......... 6,590,734 5,178,912 110,275 2.1 308,074 5.9 4,760,563 91.9 34,643 90,596 1,286,583

Utah .......... 831,039 664,965 19,430 2.9 32,176 4.8 613,359 92.2 4,646 9,977 151,451

Vermont........ 168,369 139,324 4,181 3.0 6,615 4.7 128,528 92.3 920 1,571 26,554

Virginia......... 2,000,289 1,567,983 38,289 2.4 79,118 5.0 1,450,576 92.5 11,849 26,287 394,170

Washington..... 1,698,284 1,392,445 38,879 2.8 79,452 5.7 1,274,114 91.5 9,491 21,955 274,393

West Virginia . . . 493,241 365,657 9,849 2.7 25,119 6.9 330,689 90.4 3,068 7,245 117,271

Wisconsin ...... 1,582,991 1,278,901 30,583 2.4 59,964 4.7 1,188,354 92.9 7,387 16,103 280,600

Wyoming . . ..... 141,256 118,786 3,997 3.4 7,769 6.5 107,020 90.1 703 1,643 20,124

Puerto Rico . . .... 1,435,136 937,408 10,696 1.1 36,236 3.9 890,476 95.0 5,081 14,733 477,914

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.
U.S. Census Bureau 5
6 U.S. Census Bureau

the time it takes to finalize the

adoption process, as well as the

decreasing number of infants in the

United States in need of adoption,9

and the fact that children who are

adopted by their stepparents would

likely be at least several years old,

having come from a previous marital union. For all three types of

children, similar proportions were

aged 18 and over, about 23 percent

for adopted children and stepchildren and 25 percent for biological

children.

WHERE DO ADOPTED

CHILDREN LIVE?

The proportion of children under 18

who were adopted—who make up

three-quarters of adopted children

of all ages—hardly varied by region

or state in 2000 (see Table 2).10 The

percent in the Midwest (2.6 percent)

was slightly higher than in the other

three regions (each 2.4 percent). By

state, this percentage ranged from

about 2.0 in Delaware, California,

Texas, and Louisiana to 3.9 percent

in Alaska. As previously noted,

informal adoption has been found

to be common among some

Alaskan Native groups,11 which may

have contributed to the higher percentage in Alaska. 

Although the state inset maps in

Figure 3 seem to indicate that a

relatively higher percentage of

adopted children were found in a

broad geographic band ranging

diagonally across the country from

Florida to Washington, it should be

noted that both the levels and the

range of these percentages are

only a few percentage points. The

most important observation about

geographic patterns in the percentage of children who were adopted

is that adoption is a family-building process which takes place in all

states in about the same proportions. As mentioned previously,

counties in Alaska with the highest

percentages of children of the

householder who were adopted

likely reflect Alaskan Native communities in which the meaning and

practice of adoption may differ

from that in other communities.

The fact that Census 2000 data

include various types of adoption,

each of which may have its own

geographic pattern, may also contribute to the lack of a distinct

geographic pattern when all types

of adoptions are considered jointly.

WHERE DO 

STEPCHILDREN LIVE?

Nationally, 5 percent of children of

the householder under age 18 in

2000 were stepchildren. At the

regional level, percentages of children of the householder under 18

who were stepchildren varied more

than the corresponding percentages for adopted children, ranging

from 3.3 percent in the Northeast

to 6.1 percent in the South, with

both the Midwest and the West at

about the national average of 

5.1 percent. For children under

18, the state with the highest percentage of children of the householder who were stepchildren was

Arkansas (8.5 percent), followed by

Oklahoma (8.0 percent) and

Tennessee (7.0 percent). Two

states with percentages just under

3 percent were Massachusetts 

(2.7 percent) and New York 

(2.9 percent). Two percent of the

children of the householder under

18 in the District of Columbia were

stepchildren. The differences in

these state percentages are affected by the likelihood that parents

remarry after divorce, whether the

child lives with the father or the

mother after a divorce, and the

gender of the householder in

remarried-couple families. Since

most children continue to live with

their mothers rather than their

fathers, remarried-couple households with the husband as the

householder will tend to create

more householder-stepchild relationships than remarried couples

with the wife as the householder.12

PROFILE OF CHILDREN OF

THE HOUSEHOLDER

Demographic Patterns

In the last several years, legislation

has been passed which increased

financial assistance for adoptive

families (e.g., Adoption Tax Credits,

the Promoting Safe and Stable

Families Program) and removed

some of the barriers to international

and interracial adoptions (e.g., Child

Citizenship Act of 2000, Multiethnic

Placement Act of 1994). The fact

that Census 2000 collected the current age of the adopted child and

not the age at adoption prevents

determining if the number of adopted children has increased over time.

However, the presence of approximately 42,000 adopted children

less than a year old living with

9 Anjani Chandra, Joyce Abma, Penelope

Maza, and Christine Bachrach. Adoption,

Adoption Seeking, and Relinquishment for

Adoption in the United States. Vital and

Health Statistics, No. 306, National Center

for Health Statistics. Hyattsville, MD, 1999. 10 The Northeast region includes the states

of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New

Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The Midwest region includes the states of

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan,

Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota,

Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The

South region includes the states of Alabama,

Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia,

Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi,

North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina,

Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and

the District of Columbia, a state equivalent.

The West region includes the states of Alaska,

Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho,

Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah,

Washington, and Wyoming. 11 Amy Craver. “Complex Inupiaq Eskimo

Households and Relationships in Two

Northwest Alaska Rural Communities,”

Alaska Native Science Commission.

University of Alaska, Anchorage, 2001.

12 The percentage of children of the

householder under 18 in married-couple

households with male householders, by

state, was also strongly correlated (r=.47)

with the percentage of children of the householder who were stepchildren. 
U.S. Census Bureau 7

Table 3.

Selected Characteristics of Householder's Children Under 18 by Type of Relationship and

Sex of Child: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Characteristic of child

Adopted children Stepchildren Biological children

Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female

Total ...................... 1,586,004 750,528 835,476 3,292,301 1,654,766 1,637,535 59,773,654 30,740,753 29,032,901

Age

Under 1 year ................. 41,795 19,447 22,348 12,384 6,345 6,039 3,148,542 1,617,368 1,531,174

1 year ....................... 55,857 25,310 30,547 21,266 10,903 10,363 3,173,342 1,628,187 1,545,155

2 years . . . ................... 63,250 28,549 34,701 36,000 18,179 17,821 3,167,328 1,624,648 1,542,680

3 years . . . ................... 71,211 32,071 39,140 57,986 29,152 28,834 3,227,496 1,656,621 1,570,875

4 years . . . ................... 74,717 33,832 40,885 86,298 43,319 42,979 3,316,803 1,705,905 1,610,898

5 years . . . ................... 82,466 38,334 44,132 114,444 57,944 56,500 3,368,921 1,734,680 1,634,241

6 years . . . ................... 85,298 40,123 45,175 142,935 72,735 70,200 3,400,350 1,746,453 1,653,897

7 years . . . ................... 92,634 44,325 48,309 174,308 88,620 85,688 3,464,985 1,777,536 1,687,449

8 years . . . ................... 100,144 47,771 52,373 205,419 103,502 101,917 3,506,676 1,796,739 1,709,937

9 years . . . ................... 106,403 50,491 55,912 231,797 117,489 114,308 3,581,011 1,842,840 1,738,171

10 years ..................... 106,626 51,320 55,306 254,456 128,274 126,182 3,555,349 1,829,177 1,726,172

11 years ..................... 107,221 51,908 55,313 262,207 130,685 131,522 3,426,166 1,762,824 1,663,342

12 years ..................... 106,116 51,161 54,955 272,989 138,432 134,557 3,374,253 1,735,147 1,639,106

13 years ..................... 105,336 50,856 54,480 281,502 140,111 141,391 3,321,218 1,709,523 1,611,695

14 years ..................... 105,184 49,662 55,522 292,639 146,624 146,015 3,341,000 1,722,068 1,618,932

15 years ..................... 98,249 46,715 51,534 289,992 144,965 145,027 3,218,126 1,655,653 1,562,473

16 years ..................... 93,859 45,319 48,540 281,016 139,357 141,659 3,118,713 1,608,455 1,510,258

17 years ..................... 89,638 43,334 46,304 274,663 138,130 136,533 3,063,375 1,586,929 1,476,446

Race and Hispanic Origin

White alone .................. 1,017,666 489,824 527,842 2,482,249 1,248,522 1,233,727 42,358,683 21,836,836 20,521,847

Black or African American

alone . . . .................... 254,161 122,378 131,783 402,821 200,649 202,172 7,911,317 4,021,896 3,889,421

American Indian and Alaska

Native alone................. 25,681 12,603 13,078 39,822 19,931 19,891 597,780 305,186 292,594

Asian alone . . ................ 116,909 43,285 73,624 38,905 19,203 19,702 2,069,271 1,076,538 992,733

Native Hawaiian and Other

Pacific Islander alone......... 4,184 2,034 2,150 4,272 2,113 2,159 88,019 45,590 42,429

Some other race alone . . ...... 89,894 42,480 47,414 205,221 105,233 99,988 4,373,885 2,240,392 2,133,493

Two or more races . . .......... 77,509 37,924 39,585 119,011 59,115 59,896 2,374,699 1,214,315 1,160,384

Hispanic or Latino (of any

race) ....................... 215,909 102,463 113,446 479,101 244,243 234,858 9,720,023 4,986,524 4,733,499

White alone, not Hispanic or

Latino . . .................... 918,044 442,330 475,714 2,261,667 1,135,942 1,125,725 37,957,788 19,573,548 18,384,240

Nativity and English Ability

Native . ...................... 1,386,868 666,452 720,416 3,159,566 1,587,476 1,572,090 57,461,010 29,543,996 27,917,014

Foreign born. . ................ 199,136 84,076 115,060 132,735 67,290 65,445 2,312,644 1,196,757 1,115,887

Foreign born aged 5 to 17 . . . 147,073 65,711 81,362 127,771 64,943 62,828 2,076,420 1,074,967 1,001,453

Speaks non-English

language at home1 ....... 45,372 21,127 24,245 107,271 54,531 52,740 1,836,079 951,318 884,761

Speaks English very well 25,138 11,194 13,944 57,474 29,029 28,445 999,482 508,057 491,425

Disability Status1

Aged 5 to 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,279,174 611,319 667,855 3,078,367 1,546,868 1,531,499 43,740,143 22,508,024 21,232,119

At least one disability . . ...... 150,451 88,977 61,474 213,663 137,353 76,310 2,279,024 1,456,646 822,378

Sensory disability ......... 18,930 9,713 9,217 34,488 18,379 16,109 404,988 222,937 182,051

Physical disability ......... 19,595 10,782 8,813 21,814 12,611 9,203 360,976 210,348 150,628

Mental disability2 .......... 132,700 80,694 52,006 174,842 117,942 56,900 1,768,187 1,190,175 578,012

Self-care disability. . . ...... 20,706 10,526 10,180 30,471 16,376 14,095 417,677 229,138 188,539

Multiple disabilities3 ......... 27,498 15,334 12,164 33,863 19,855 14,008 463,179 277,620 185,559

In Poverty ..................... 187,018 87,998 99,020 342,435 174,111 168,324 9,578,757 4,887,268 4,691,489

1

These questions were asked only of people aged 5 and over.

2

The question asks if the person has difficulty learning, remembering, or concentrating.

3

This includes children with any combination of two or more of the disabilities listed above.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.
8 U.S. Census Bureau

householders means, that at least

this number of infants were adopted in the 1-year period prior to the

census (see Table 3). 

The number of stepchildren was

larger at each single year of age

until age 14. In comparison, the

relative lack of variation in the

number of biological children at

each age reflects roughly equal

numbers of annual births during

the preceding two decades. The

relative increases by age shown for

adopted children and stepchildren

reflect the length of the adoption

process for adopted children and

the intervals between parental

marriage, childbearing, divorce,

and remarriage for stepchildren. 

In addition to different age patterns,

the sex ratio (i.e., the number of

males per 100 females) shows

variations among adopted, biological, and stepchildren. For children

under 18, the sex ratio was highest

for biological children (106), followed by stepchildren (101) and

adopted children (90). The sex

ratio for biological children reflects

the fact that there are more male

births than female births, and that,

at older ages, girls leave home earlier than boys, reflecting in part the

earlier average age at first marriage

for women than for men. 

More girls than boys are adopted,

for several reasons. First, women

in general express a preference for

adopting girls,13 and single women

more frequently have adopted girls

than boys.14 Also, a majority of

the children available for adoption

from other countries that are leading sources for adopted children

are girls.15

Figure 4 displays the sex ratio 

of biological, adopted, and

stepchildren of the householder by

age. Age is shown in single years

Figure 4.

Sex Ratio for Children of the Householder by Age of Child: 2000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, 

nonsampling error, and definitions, see www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

0.9

1.4

1.3

0.7

1.4

1.2

1.6

1.3

18.9 0.9

29.1

7.5

38.6

25.1

25.2

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

25

and

over

18

to

24

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Age

Males per 100 females

Adopted children

Stepchildren

Biological children

13 Anjani Chandra, Joyce Abma, Penelope

Maza, and Christine Bachrach. Adoption,

Adoption Seeking, and Relinquishment for

Adoption in the United States. Vital and

Health Statistics, No. 306, National Center

for Health Statistics. Hyattsville, MD, 1999.

14 Victor Groze. “Adoption and single parents: a review.” Child Welfare, 1991. Vol. 70,

No. 3, pp. 321-332. 15 Families With Children from China

(FWCC) states that about 95 percent of the

children in China waiting for adoption are

girls. Also, see Sten Johansson and Ola

Nygren. “The Missing Girls of China: A New

Demographic Account” Population and

Development Review. 1991, Vol. 17, No. 1,

pp. 35-51, which discusses the sex ratio of

adopted children within China. Data from

Census 2000 show that 93 percent of the

adopted children who were born in China

were girls. In Census 2000 data, 57 percent

of the adopted children born in Korea are

girls. The sex ratio for the adopted children

who were born in India is also relatively low,

since 65 percent of these children were girls. 
U.S. Census Bureau 9

up to age 17, and then in two age

groups: 18 to 24 years and 25 and

over. The sex ratio, the number of

males per 100 females, has a value

of 100 when there are equal numbers of boys and girls; a value

above 100 indicates there are more

boys than girls and a value below

100 indicates more girls than boys.

Figure 4 shows that, for all ages

under 18, there were more adopted

girls than boys at each year of age,

particularly for children under 6

years, for whom the sex ratio was

90 or less. For adopted children

aged 18 and over, the ratio was

greater than 100, indicating that

adopted children who continued to

live in their parents’ households

were more likely to be boys than

girls, paralleling the case for biological and stepchildren. The sex ratio

for biological children was fairly

constant for children under 18

years, and then jumped dramatically, showing that boys were more

likely to live in their parents’ households as adults. 

The sex ratio for stepchildren

under 18 hovered relatively close

to 100, in contrast with that for

biological and adopted children. 

Race, Ethnicity, and 

Nativity Characteristics

Census 2000 allowed respondents

to choose more than one race. With

the exception of the Two or more

races group, all race groups discussed in this report refer to people

who indicated only one racial identity among the six major categories:

White, Black or African American,

American Indian and Alaska Native,

Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other

Pacific Islander, and Some other

race.16 The use of the single-race

population in this report does not

imply that it is the preferred

method of presenting or analyzing

data. The Census Bureau uses a

variety of approaches.17

In 2000, White (and no other race),

not Hispanic children made up the

majority of all categories of children

of householders under 18: about 

58 percent of adopted children, 

64 percent of biological children,

and 69 percent of stepchildren (see

Table 4). A higher percentage of

adopted children under 18 were

Black or African American (16 percent) than the percentage of biological children (13 percent) and the

percentage of stepchildren (12 percent).18 This higher percentage may

be due in part to the fact that the

percentage of children in the child

welfare system who are Black is

higher than the percentage of children in the overall population who

are Black,19 and may also reflect a

higher number of informal adoptions in African American communities. Although the percentage of

children under 18 who were

American Indian and Alaska Native

is small, a higher percentage of

adopted children were American

Indian and Alaska Native (1.6 percent) than the percentage of biological (1.0 percent) or stepchildren

(1.2 percent) who are American

Indian and Alaska Native, which

may be related to informal adoptions in American Indian and Alaska

Native communities. 

The percentage of adopted children

under 18 who were Asian 

(7.4 percent) is higher than the percentage of biological (3.5 percent)

and stepchildren (1.2 percent) who

were Asian. This is due largely to

the fact that nearly half (49 percent)

of all foreign-born adopted children

were born in Asian countries. A

slightly lower percentage of adopted children than stepchildren or biological children under 18 were

Hispanic (14 percent compared with

15 percent and 16 percent, respectively).20

Tables 3 and 4 also show the number and percentage of children of

the householder who were foreign

born and the number who spoke

English “very well” among those 5

to 17 years who spoke a language

other than English at home. About

4 percent of children under 18

who were stepchildren or biological children in 2000 were foreign

born.21 The corresponding percentage was considerably higher

for adopted children—11 percent

for boys and 14 percent for girls.

The higher percentage for girls

was heavily influenced by the number of foreign-born adopted children who were Asian, because the

16 For further information on each of the

six major race groups and the Two or more

races population, see reports from the Census

2000 Brief series (C2KBR/01), available on the

Census 2000 Web site at www.census.gov/

population/www/cen2000/briefs.html.

17 This report draws heavily on Summary

File 3, a Census 2000 product that can be

accessed through American FactFinder, available from the Census Bureau’s Web site,

www.census.gov. Information on people who

reported more than one race, such as “White

and American Indian and Alaska Native” or

“Asian and Black or African American” can be

found in Summary File 4, also available

through American FactFinder. About 2.6 percent of people reported more than one race. 18 Hereafter, this report uses the term

Black to refer to people who are Black or

African American, the term Pacific Islander to

refer to people who are Native Hawaiian and

Other Pacific Islander, and the term Hispanic

to refer to people who are Hispanic or

Latino. 19 National Adoption Center Web site at

www.adoptuskids.org. The National

Adoption Center is a service of the Children’s

Bureau, of the Administration for Children

and Families, part of the U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services. 

20 Because Hispanics may be of any race,

data in this report for Hispanics overlap with

data for racial groups. Based on Census

2000 sample data, the proportion Hispanic

was 8.0 percent for the White alone population, 2.0 percent for the Black alone population, 14.6 percent for the American Indian

and Alaska Native alone population, 1.0 percent for the Asian alone population, 9.5 percent for the Native Hawaiian and Other

Pacific Islander alone population, 

97.1 percent for the Some other race alone

population, and 31.1 percent for the Two or

more races population. 21 These percentages, 4.0 percent for

stepchildren and 3.9 percent for biological

children, differ statistically but not substantively.
10 U.S. Census Bureau

Table 4.

Percent Distribution of Selected Characteristics of Householder' s Children Under 18 by

Type of Relationship and Sex of Child: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Characteristic of child

Adopted children Stepchildren Biological children

Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female

Total ...................... 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Age

Under 1 year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6 2.6 2.7 0.4 0.4 0.4 5.3 5.3 5.3

1 year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 3.4 3.7 0.6 0.7 0.6 5.3 5.3 5.3

2 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.0 3.8 4.2 1.1 1.1 1.1 5.3 5.3 5.3

3 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 4.3 4.7 1.8 1.8 1.8 5.4 5.4 5.4

4 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7 4.5 4.9 2.6 2.6 2.6 5.5 5.5 5.5

5 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 5.1 5.3 3.5 3.5 3.5 5.6 5.6 5.6

6 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 5.3 5.4 4.3 4.4 4.3 5.7 5.7 5.7

7 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8 5.9 5.8 5.3 5.4 5.2 5.8 5.8 5.8

8 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 6.4 6.3 6.2 6.3 6.2 5.9 5.8 5.9

9 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7 6.7 6.7 7.0 7.1 7.0 6.0 6.0 6.0

10 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7 6.8 6.6 7.7 7.8 7.7 5.9 6.0 5.9

11 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.8 6.9 6.6 8.0 7.9 8.0 5.7 5.7 5.7

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7 6.8 6.6 8.3 8.4 8.2 5.6 5.6 5.6

13 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6 6.8 6.5 8.6 8.5 8.6 5.6 5.6 5.6

14 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6 6.6 6.6 8.9 8.9 8.9 5.6 5.6 5.6

15 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 6.2 6.2 8.8 8.8 8.9 5.4 5.4 5.4

16 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.9 6.0 5.8 8.5 8.4 8.7 5.2 5.2 5.2

17 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7 5.8 5.5 8.3 8.3 8.3 5.1 5.2 5.1

Race and Hispanic Origin

White alone .................. 64.2 65.3 63.2 75.4 75.5 75.3 70.9 71.0 70.7

Black or African American

alone....................... 16.0 16.3 15.8 12.2 12.1 12.3 13.2 13.1 13.4

American Indian and Alaska

Native alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6 1.7 1.6 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.0 1.0 1.0

Asian alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 5.8 8.8 1.2 1.2 1.2 3.5 3.5 3.4

Native Hawaiian and Other

Pacific Islander alone . . . . . . . . 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1

Some other race alone . . . . . . . . 5.7 5.7 5.7 6.2 6.4 6.1 7.3 7.3 7.3

Two or more races . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.9 5.1 4.7 3.6 3.6 3.7 4.0 4.0 4.0

Hispanic or Latino (of any

race) . . ..................... 13.6 13.7 13.6 14.6 14.8 14.3 16.3 16.2 16.3

White alone, not Hispanic or

Latino ...................... 57.9 58.9 56.9 68.7 68.6 68.7 63.5 63.7 63.3

Nativity and English Ability

Native ....................... 87.4 88.8 86.2 96.0 95.9 96.0 96.1 96.1 96.2

Foreign born ................. 12.6 11.2 13.8 4.0 4.1 4.0 3.9 3.9 3.8

Foreign born aged 5 to 17 . . . 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Speaks non-English

language at home1

....... 30.8 32.2 29.8 84.0 84.0 83.9 88.4 88.5 88.3

Speaks English very well 17.1 17.0 17.1 45.0 44.7 45.3 48.1 47.3 49.1

Disability Status1

Aged 5 to 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

At least one disability. . . . . . . . 11.8 14.6 9.2 6.9 8.9 5.0 5.2 6.5 3.9

Sensory disability . . . . . . . . . 1.5 1.6 1.4 1.1 1.2 1.1 0.9 1.0 0.9

Physical disability . . . . . . . . . 1.5 1.8 1.3 0.7 0.8 0.6 0.8 0.9 0.7

Mental disability2

.......... 10.4 13.2 7.8 5.7 7.6 3.7 4.0 5.3 2.7

Self-care disability . . . . . . . . 1.6 1.7 1.5 1.0 1.1 0.9 1.0 1.0 0.9

Multiple disabilities3 . . . . . . . . . 2.1 2.5 1.8 1.1 1.3 0.9 1.1 1.2 0.9

In Poverty ..................... 11.8 11.7 11.9 10.4 10.5 10.3 16.0 15.9 16.2

1

These questions were asked only of people aged 5 and over.

2

The question asks if the person has difficulty learning, remembering, or concentrating.

3

This includes children with any combination of two or more of the disabilities listed above.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.
majority of adopted Asian children

were girls. 

While most foreign-born biological

and stepchildren under age 18 

(88 percent and 84 percent, respectively) spoke a language other than

English at home, this was not the

case for foreign-born adopted children. Thirty percent of foreign-born

adopted girls and 32 percent of foreign-born adopted boys under 18

spoke a language other than

English at home. Many of the foreign-born adopted children were

likely adopted at a young age,

before they could speak any language fluently, and since their parents often speak only English, they

are more likely to do so as well. Of

those who spoke a language other

than English, the proportion who

spoke English “very well” was over

half for all children, at about 

54 percent.

Disability and Poverty 

Status of Children

The Census 2000 long form provided basic information about

physical and mental limitations

that children may have. For each

person aged 5 and over, information was collected on hearing or

vision difficulties (sensory disabilities); conditions which limited

basic activities (physical disabilities); difficulty in learning, remembering, or concentrating (mental

disabilities); and difficulty in getting dressed, bathing, or getting

around inside the house (self-care

disabilities). People answered

these questions as they perceived

the capabilities of the individual,

regardless of whether the condition fit any medical or legal definitions of a disability. 

Table 4 indicates that a higher

proportion of adopted children

under 18 than of biological and

stepchildren under 18 had at least

one disability.22 This was true for

both boys (15 percent for adopted,

compared with 9 percent for

stepchildren and 7 percent for biological children) and girls (9 percent

for adopted, compared with 

5 percent of stepchildren and 

4 percent for biological children).

The most commonly reported disability was difficulty learning,

remembering, or concentrating,

which is categorized in the table

under the term “mental disability.”

Parents who reported this difficulty

for their children were likely reporting conditions such as learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, as well as other

conditions. This category may also

include children who suffer the

effects of maternal drug abuse, fetal

alcohol syndrome, or any medical

condition that affects the child’s

mental capabilities. 

About 3 percent of biological girls

under 18 were reported to have difficulty learning, remembering, or

concentrating, as were about 5 percent of biological boys under 18.

The percentages for stepchildren

were higher, at 4 percent for girls

and about 8 percent for boys.

Adopted children had the highest

percentages, at 8 percent for girls

and 13 percent for boys under 18. 

The percentage of children under

18 who had multiple disabilities

(more than one of the categories

listed) ranged only from 0.9 percent

for biological and stepdaughters to

2.5 percent for adopted boys.

Although the categories available

for analysis do not have exact medical definitions, it appears that

adoptive families face significant

challenges in dealing with the

needs of their children. 

While more adopted children under

18 had disabilities, they tended to

live in families that were better off

economically than their biological

counterparts. Table 4 shows that

about 12 percent of adopted children of the householder were in

poverty, compared with 16 percent

for biological children. Stepchildren under 18 recorded the

lowest proportion living in poverty

(10 percent). 

Foreign-Born 

Adopted Children

Some prospective adoptive parents

may decide to adopt a foreign-born

child if adopting a child in the

United States may take longer.

Adopting from a foreign country

with a well-organized program often

assures parents they will receive a

child within a fairly dependable

timeline, generally about a year. For

this reason and others, the adoption

of foreign-born children has

increased. The number of immigrant visas issued to orphans coming to the United States for adoption

increased from about 7,000 in 1990

to nearly 18,000 in 2000.23

U.S. Census Bureau 11

22 The word “disability” as used in this

report refers to people who answered “yes”

to Census 2000 long form question 16, part

a or b, or question 17, part a or b. Question

16 reads: “Does this person have any of the

following long-lasting conditions: a.

Blindness, deafness, or a severe vision or

hearing impairment? b. A condition that

substantially limits one or more basic physical activities such as walking, climbing

stairs, reaching, lifting or carrying?”

The first two parts of Question 17 read:

“Because of a physical, mental, or emotional

condition lasting 6 months or more, does

this person have any difficulty in doing any

of the following activities: a. Learning,

remembering, or concentrating? b. Dressing,

bathing, or getting around inside the home?

Since most of the people identified as children of the householder were under 18, the

answers to question 17, parts c and d, were

not considered for this report since they

asked about difficulty going outside the

home alone, and difficulty working, and

were not asked of people below age 16.

23 Totals from U.S. State Department 

Web site at: www.travel.state.gov/

orphan_numbers.html. For more information

about the increase in international adoptions,

see: Peter Selman. “Intercountry adoption in

the new millennium; the ‘quiet migration’

revisited” Population Research and Policy

Review, 2002, Vol. 21, pp. 205-225.
12 U.S. Census Bureau

Because of the large sample size 

of Census 2000, a detailed

examination of the place of birth

of foreign-born adopted children

can be shown in Table 5. The

number of children from selected

countries or regions is shown by

the age of the child, which may

suggest change over time in the

most important birth countries. 

In 2000, 13 percent of adopted children of householders of all ages

were foreign born. Nearly half 

(48 percent) of the foreign-born

adopted children were born in Asia,

about one-third (33 percent) in Latin

America, and about one-sixth 

(16 percent) in Europe. An examination of the age differences in the

proportion of foreign-born adopted

children who were born in Europe

suggests that their numbers may

have increased in recent years.

While about 10 percent of all

foreign-born adopted children aged

18 and over were born in Europe,

the proportion was 23 percent for

children aged 6 to 11 and 27 percent for those under 6. A large

component of all European-born

adopted children under 6 was from

Russia and Romania. Eighty-two

percent of European-born adopted

children under 6 in 2000 were from

these two countries, compared with

69 percent of their counterparts

aged 6 to 11, and only 13 percent

for those 18 and over. Children

under 12 in 2000 would have been

born in 1989 or later, so they would

have been very young when the

Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, or

were born in the subsequent years.

The resulting economic and social

changes left large numbers of children available for adoption.24

Korea was the largest single-country source of foreign-born adopted

children, providing about 57,000

children or a little over one-fifth

(22 percent) of all foreign-born

adopted children. This proportion

is significantly lower for children

under 6 (15 percent) than for children 6 to 11 (20 percent) or children 12 to 17 (35 percent). The

percentage of foreign-born adopted children who were born in

China was less than 3 percent of

all foreign-born adopted children

Table 5.

Adopted Children of the Householder by Place of Birth and Age: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Nativity and place of birth

Total

adopted

children

of

householder

Under 18 years 18 years and over

Total Under 6 6 to 11 12 to 14 15 to 17 Total 18 to 24

25 and

over

Total ...................... 2,058,915 1,586,004 389,296 598,326 316,636 281,746 472,911 273,957 198,954

Native ......................... 1,801,123 1,386,868 326,134 536,531 278,795 245,408 414,255 238,670 175,585

Foreign born1 .................. 257,792 199,136 63,162 61,795 37,841 36,338 58,656 35,287 23,369

Europe2 ..................... 42,370 36,800 16,955 14,144 3,175 2,526 5,570 2,449 3,121

Russia..................... 20,208 19,631 11,825 6,271 1,002 533 577 459 118

Romania................... 6,329 6,183 2,113 3,426 468 176 146 111 35

Ukraine .................... 2,764 2,328 904 921 258 245 436 280 156

Asia2 ........................ 122,899 98,368 34,332 23,478 20,694 19,864 24,531 15,316 9,215

China ..................... 22,410 21,053 17,681 2,425 514 433 1,357 644 713

India . . . ................... 9,579 7,793 1,712 2,437 2,070 1,574 1,786 1,294 492

Korea . . ................... 56,825 47,555 9,159 12,132 13,474 12,790 9,270 7,066 2,204

Philippines ................. 9,828 6,286 659 2,053 1,628 1,946 3,542 2,125 1,417

Vietnam . .................. 7,377 4,291 2,183 855 570 683 3,086 1,041 2,045

Africa........................ 4,307 3,111 549 1,109 820 633 1,196 741 455

Latin America2

................ 83,940 58,166 10,681 22,152 12,672 12,661 25,774 16,186 9,588

Central America2

............ 47,659 32,476 6,868 10,774 7,018 7,816 15,183 9,702 5,481

Guatemala ............... 8,428 7,357 3,644 2,229 712 772 1,071 741 330

Mexico .................. 28,090 18,201 2,655 6,333 4,454 4,759 9,889 5,972 3,917

El Salvador .............. 4,475 2,254 125 575 581 973 2,221 1,702 519

South America2 ............. 25,981 20,354 3,110 9,453 4,335 3,456 5,627 4,040 1,587

Colombia ................ 9,656 7,054 1,235 2,685 1,588 1,546 2,602 2,073 529

Northern America ............. 2,797 1,576 113 630 351 482 1,221 373 848

1

Foreign born includes 1,479 children born in Oceania and 0 children ‘‘born at sea,’’ which are not shown separately.

2

Includes areas not shown separately.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.

24 Peter Selman. “Intercountry adoption in

the new millennium; the ‘quiet migration’

revisited” Population Research and Policy

Review, 2002, Vol. 21, pp 205-225.
aged 6 and over but 28 percent of

those under 6. One consequence

of enforcement of the one-child

population policy in China is the

abandonment of girls because of

the cultural preference for sons.25

Since the early 1990s, when China

began to allow large numbers of

these girls to be adopted by foreigners, an increasing number

have been adopted by U.S. citizens. The U.S. State Department

recorded only 61 immigrant visas

issued to orphans coming to the

United States from China in 1991,

but 5,053 in 2000.26

After Asia, Latin America was the

second largest region of origin for

foreign-born adopted children of

the householder, numbering about

84,000 children or about one-third

of all foreign-born adopted children. The largest source country

in this region was Mexico, which

accounted for one-third of all

adopted children from Latin

America. Unlike the children born

in China, the Mexican children

were evidently not predominantly

orphans being adopted by U.S. citizens. The State Department

recorded only between 50 and 200

immigrant visas issued to Mexican

children per year during the

1990s.27 Thus, many of these

children may have been adopted

informally by relatives.28

Intermarriage between nonHispanic Whites and Hispanics is

relatively common; so the adoption

of stepchildren in these marriages

may also help account for the large

number of foreign-born adopted

children born in Mexico.29 About

37 percent of the foreign-born

adopted children born in South

America were born in Colombia,

which has experienced social turmoil and war for decades. 

PROFILE OF THE

HOUSEHOLDERS OF

ADOPTED CHILDREN 

AND STEPCHILDREN

Race and Hispanic Origin 

of the Householder

While the previous sections of this

report have examined the characteristics of adopted and stepchildren, the following sections present estimates of the numbers of

such children by the characteristics

of the householder and the type of

household in which the children

lived. Table 6 shows that there

was less variation by type of relationship in the race and Hispanic

origin of the householder than

there was in the race and origin of

the children themselves. The percentage of children under 18 who

lived with a non-Hispanic White

householder was substantively the

same for both adopted (71 percent) and stepchildren (72 percent), and somewhat lower for biological children (65 percent). The

U.S. Census Bureau 13

Figure 5.

Percent Distribution of Foreign-Born Adopted 

Children of the Householder by Age of Child 

and Place of Birth: 2000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulations.

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, 

sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see 

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Under 6 6 to 11 12 to 17 18 and over

Europe

Asia

Latin America

Other (Oceania, 

Africa and Northern 

America)

9.5

1.9

16.9

54.4

26.8

3.3

35.8

38.0

22.9

3.5

34.2

54.7

7.7

4.7

43.9

41.8

25 Kay Johnson, Huang Banghan, and Wang

Liyao. “Infant Abandonment and Adoption in

China” Population and Development Review,

1998, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 469-510. 26 Totals from U.S. State Department 

web site at: www.travel.state.gov/ 

orphan_numbers.html. Also see the Families

With Children from China web site at

fwcc.org/statistics.html.

27 Totals from U.S. State Department 

Web site at: www.travel.state.gov/ 

orphan_numbers.html.

28 Hamm describes informal adoption as

perhaps more common among Hispanics

than formal adoption, stating that children

may be raised by relatives. Maria Suarez

Hamm. “Latino Adoption Issues,” Adoption

Factbook III. National Council for Adoption:

Washington, DC. 1999, pp. 257-260. 29 See Census 2000, PHC-T-19, Hispanic

Origin and Race of Coupled Households:

2000 and Tavia Simmons and Martin

O’Connell. Married-Couple and UnmarriedPartner Households: 2000. Census 2000

Special Reports, CENSR-5. U.S. Census

Bureau: Washington, DC, 2003.
14 U.S. Census Bureau

Table 6.

Children of the Householder by Type of Relationship, Age, and Selected Characteristics

of the Householder: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Characteristic of householder

Adopted children Stepchildren Biological children

Under 18 years

18

years

and

over

Under 18 years 18 years

and over

Under 18 years 18 years

and over

Number

Percent Number PercentPercent Number NumberPercent Number

Total............................... 1,586,004 100.0 472,911 3,292,301 100.0 1,092,280 59,773,654 100.0 17,496,957

Race and Hispanic Origin of Householder

White alone............................. 1,198,959 75.6 352,816 2,536,082 77.0 822,080 43,017,780 72.0 11,973,603

Black or African American alone........... 231,459 14.6 71,945 415,460 12.6 157,226 7,980,985 13.4 2,918,756

American Indian and Alaska Native alone . . 18,595 1.2 4,910 39,721 1.2 10,615 608,129 1.0 179,191

Asian alone............................. 36,153 2.3 14,936 33,206 1.0 17,001 2,181,674 3.6 832,388

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander

alone . . ............................... 2,666 0.2 887 4,077 0.1 1,566 98,016 0.2 29,230

Some other race alone................... 66,894 4.2 18,351 193,040 5.9 61,073 4,429,909 7.4 1,154,466

Two or more races ...................... 31,278 2.0 9,066 70,715 2.1 22,719 1,457,161 2.4 409,323

Hispanic or Latino (of any race) ........... 149,786 9.4 45,365 408,548 12.4 137,523 9,255,817 15.5 2,574,084

White alone, not Hispanic or Latino........ 1,129,821 71.2 329,914 2,355,608 71.5 757,754 38,927,446 65.1 10,750,574

Child and Householder Race/Origin

Difference

Child is different race than householder1 271,454 17.1 49,705 356,441 10.8 105,957 4,010,538 6.7 893,039

Child is different Hispanic origin than

householder2 .......................... 105,097 6.6 20,227 217,987 6.6 59,496 1,384,636 2.3 241,516

Living Arrangement of the Householder

Married couple households ............... 1,237,784 78.0 308,522 2,904,701 88.2 980,191 44,121,622 73.8 10,497,970

Male householder—no spouse present..... 78,698 5.0 43,156 314,828 9.6 79,947 3,066,778 5.1 1,248,035

With an unmarried partner.............. 28,641 1.8 4,172 264,404 8.0 36,716 1,335,277 2.2 128,384

No unmarried partner present........... 50,057 3.2 38,984 50,424 1.5 43,231 1,731,501 2.9 1,119,651

Married—spouse absent ............. 5,393 0.3 4,208 10,227 0.3 7,154 189,624 0.3 130,739

Divorced or widowed ................ 27,798 1.8 28,198 19,725 0.6 27,285 1,027,436 1.7 844,662

Separated .......................... 6,337 0.4 2,596 6,167 0.2 4,903 254,107 0.4 99,307

Never married ...................... 10,529 0.7 3,982 14,305 0.4 3,889 260,334 0.4 44,943

Female householder—no spouse present . . 269,522 17.0 121,233 72,772 2.2 32,142 12,585,254 21.1 5,750,952

With an unmarried partner.............. 29,052 1.8 4,379 42,487 1.3 8,052 1,703,394 2.8 241,489

No unmarried partner present........... 240,470 15.2 116,854 30,285 0.9 24,090 10,881,860 18.2 5,509,463

Married—spouse absent ............. 11,547 0.7 4,285 6,112 0.2 2,510 614,014 1.0 215,233

Divorced or widowed ................ 126,564 8.0 93,039 11,000 0.3 16,529 4,786,081 8.0 4,224,528

Separated .......................... 33,637 2.1 9,053 5,249 0.2 2,688 1,900,471 3.2 567,930

Never married ...................... 68,722 4.3 10,477 7,924 0.2 2,363 3,581,294 6.0 501,772

Average age of householder (in years) .... 43.1 (X) 57.0 37.7 (X) 48.6 38.0 (X) 54.8

Average Age Difference (in years)

Between householder and child . . ......... 33.7 (X) 29.5 28.1 (X) 24.8 26.4 (X) 30.8

Between spouse3 of householder and

child .................................. 31.7 (X) 28.4 26.3 (X) 23.1 24.0 (X) 28.2

Between partner4 of householder and child . 27.8 (X) 24.9 23.0 (X) 21.3 23.0 (X) 24.0

X Not applicable.

1

Child and householder do not report the same group, where race groups are: White alone, Black alone, American Indian and Alaska

Native alone, Asian alone, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone, Some Other Race alone, or either the child or householder reports

multiple race groups. 2

Child is Hispanic and householder is not Hispanic, or vice versa.

3

For households containing a spouse of householder.

4

For households containing an unmarried partner of the householder.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.
range in the percentages of children under 18 who lived with a

Black householder was relatively

small: 13 percent of biological and

stepchildren, compared with 

15 percent of adopted children. A

higher percentage of biological

children (4 percent) than adopted

children (2 percent) and stepchildren (1 percent) lived with an

Asian householder. This difference

may be due in part to the fact that

Asians are less likely to divorce

and so would not be as likely to

remarry and have stepchildren.30

Table 6 also shows the percentage

of children under 18 who differed

in race or Hispanic origin from the

householder. Adopted children

had the highest percentages who

were of different races from the

householder: 17 percent for those

under 18, and 11 percent for those

18 and over. About 11 percent of

stepchildren under 18, and 10 percent of those 18 and over were of

different races than the householder, compared with 7 percent and 

5 percent of biological children

under 18 years and 18 and over,

respectively.31

About the same percentage of

adopted and stepchildren under 18

years were Hispanic while the

householder was not, or vice versa

(7 percent). The corresponding

percentage for biological children

was lower, 2 percent. Second and

later marriages are more likely to

involve spouses of different race

and Hispanic origin;32 so it is not

surprising that a higher percentage

of stepchildren than biological children were of a different race or

Hispanic origin than their householder parent. 

Living Arrangements and 

Age of the Householder

Since Census 2000 relationship data

were collected in reference to the

householder, the living arrangements experienced by children can

be analyzed by the presence or

absence of a spouse or unmarried

partner of the householder. Table 6

shows that the percentage of adopted children under 18 who lived with

two married parents (78 percent)

was higher than the percentage of

biological children (74 percent) but

lower than the percentage of

stepchildren (88 percent). This contrast can be predicted because most

stepchildren become stepchildren

when one of their biological parents

remarries. 

Although Census 2000 data cannot

tell us if single-parent33 adoptions

are increasing, data in Table 6 present the current living arrangements

of single parents and whether they

were formerly married, never married, or were living with an unmarried partner when the census was

taken. The marital status and living

arrangements of parents at the time

of the census may have been different than when they adopted their

children. About 5 percent of adopted and biological children under 18

lived with a male householder who

had no spouse present.34 For

stepchildren, this percentage was

10 percent. The stepfathers of

about 84 percent of stepchildren

who lived with single fathers were

living with an unmarried partner.

These children may be the biological children of the partners of these

men. Web sites for stepfamilies frequently refer to the children of an

adult’s partner as his or her

stepchildren.35

The percentage of children under

18 who lived with a female householder who had no spouse present

varied widely, from 2 percent for

stepchildren, to 17 percent for

adopted children, to 21 percent for

biological children. Except for the

mothers of stepchildren, proportionally few of these women had

an unmarried partner. Just over

half of the adopted children under

18 with an unmarried mother who

had no partner present had a

divorced or widowed mother. Five

percent of the adopted children

and 6 percent of the biological

children under 18 lived with a

never-married mother or father

who was not living with a partner. 

The lower section of Table 6 shows

the average age of the householder;

and the age gap between the child

and the householder, the spouse, or

the partner of the householder. For

U.S. Census Bureau 15

30 Rose M. Kreider and Jason M. Fields.

Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages

and Divorces: Fall 1996. Current Population

Reports, P70-80. U.S. Census Bureau,

Washington, DC, 2002. 31 Biological children may differ in race

from the householder under this classification method if their parents are of two different races, and the child is reported as being

one race. Also, if the child has one parent

who is White and one parent who is Black,

the child may be reported as White and

Black, in which case they would be included

in the “Two or more races” category, and

thus differ from the householder.

Additionally, all those in the “Two or more

races” category are automatically included in

the “child is different race than householder”

category.

32 Belinda M. Tucker and Claudia MitchellKernan. “New Trends in Black American

Interracial Marriage: The Social Structural

Context,” Journal of Marriage and the

Family, 1990, Vol. 52, pp. 209-218. 33 Single as used here includes people

who are never married, separated, divorced

and widowed. 

34 The difference between these two numbers is statistically significant, but the numbers are substantively the same. 35 It should be noted that less than one

percent of stepchildren are living with

householders who have never been married.

This could have resulted from imputations of

marital status at later stages in the editing

process (marital status was not on the 

100-percent form when relationship data

were edited) or as mentioned, lack of a proper way of describing a parent-child relationship between householder and child of a

current or former unmarried partner. 
children under 18, the householders

of biological and stepchildren were,

on average, 38 years old, while

householders of adopted children

were about 5 years older (43 years).

This age difference is not surprising

since the adoption process often

takes time, and people who adopted in order to build their families

tend to be older, especially if they

adopted children after trying to

have biological children. Adoptive

parents who are also the biological

grandparents of the child would

tend to be older as well. Previous

research has found that adoptive

mothers also tend to be older.36

Not surprisingly, adopted children

under 18 on average had a larger

age difference with their householder than did biological and

stepchildren. 

16 U.S. Census Bureau

Table 7.

Children of the Householder by Type of Relationship and Socioeconomic Characteristics

of the Householder: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)
Household Income and

Educational Attainment of 

the Householder

Table 7 profiles children by the

socioeconomic characteristics of

the householder. Adoptive mothers have been found to be more

educated and to have higher

incomes than biological mothers.37

Census 2000 data support these

findings and show that, for children under 18, adopted children

lived in households that had higher

incomes than those of either

stepchildren or biological children.

One-third of adopted children

under 18 lived in households with

incomes of $75,000 or more,

compared with 25 percent of

stepchildren and 27 percent of biological children. Eight percent of

adopted children under 18 lived in

households with incomes of

$150,000 or more, higher than

either stepchildren (4 percent) or

biological children (6 percent).

Comparing median household

income for these groups is another

way to consider their relative affluence. While the median household

income for adopted children under

18 ($56,000) was higher than that

of both biological children

($48,000) and stepchildren

($51,000), among children of the

householder who were 18 years

old and over, stepchildren had the

highest household incomes, at

about $68,000, compared with

$62,000 for adopted children, and

$58,000 for biological children. 

Adopted children also lived with

householders who were more educated than the householders of

either stepchildren or biological

children (see Figure 6). Eighteen

percent of adopted children under

18 lived with a householder with a

bachelor’s degree, compared with

16 percent of biological children

and 11 percent of stepchildren.

While 15 percent of adopted children under 18 lived with a householder with at least a graduate or

professional school degree, just 

10 percent of biological children

and 5 percent of stepchildren did. 

Labor Force and

Homeownership

The labor force participation rates

of the householder of adopted and

biological children under 18 were

roughly similar: 84 percent of

adopted children and 86 percent of

biological children lived with a

householder who was in the labor

force. A slightly higher percentage

of stepchildren lived with a householder who was in the labor force:

90 percent. Among children of

householders in the labor force, a

slightly lower percentage of adopted children (3.1 percent) lived with

householders who were unemployed than stepchildren (3.5 percent) or biological children 

(4.1 percent). 

Another indicator of socioeconomic

well being is whether a family owns

its home. Again, adopted children

appear to be in households which

were economically more advantaged than those of stepchildren

and biological children, since a

higher percentage lived with householders who owned rather than

rented their homes. While 

78 percent of adopted children

under 18 years old lived with

householders who owned their

homes, the corresponding

U.S. Census Bureau 17

Figure 6.

Percent of Children of the Householder Under 18 by 

Educational Attainment of the Householder: 2000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, 

sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see 

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Adopted children Stepchildren Biological children

Less than high school

High school graduate 

Some college

Graduate or 

professional school 

degree 

Bachelor's degree

18.0

15.2

18.2

29.7

22.6

14.3

4.9

10.8

32.6

34.4

17.3

9.7

16.1

29.7

26.4

37 Ibid. 
percentage for both biological and

stepchildren under 18 was 67 percent. For children 18 and over, the

gap between the percentage of

adopted, biological, and stepchildren who lived in owned homes

was smaller, but it was still 3 percentage points higher than for

stepchildren and 5 percentage

points higher than for biological

children. 

HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION:

TYPES OF CHILDREN IN

HOUSEHOLDS

How many households have adopted children and what combinations

of children live in households? Of

the 45.5 million households in

2000 that contained householders’

children of any age, most 

(89 percent) contained biological

children only; about 3 percent of

these households contained

stepchildren only; and another 

4 percent contained both biological

and stepchildren (see Table 8).

Another 2 percent contained only

adopted children of the householder and an additional 2 percent contained both adopted and biological

children.38 Only 0.1 percent of all

households with children of the

18 U.S. Census Bureau

Table 8.

Characteristics of Households Containing Children of the Householder: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Characteristic Number Percent

Total households with children of householder . . ........................ 45,490,049 100.0

Households by type of children............................................. 45,490,049 100.0

Adopted children only ..................................................... 816,678 1.8

Stepchildren only ......................................................... 1,485,201 3.3

Biological children only .................................................... 40,657,816 89.4

Adopted and biological children............................................. 808,432 1.8

Adopted children and stepchildren .......................................... 29,575 0.1

Biological children and stepchildren ......................................... 1,659,924 3.6

Biological children, adopted children, and stepchildren ........................ 32,423 0.1

Households with adopted children . . ........................................ 1,687,108 3.7

One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,383,149 3.0

Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247,600 0.5

Three or more ............................................................ 56,359 0.1

Three generation households1 .............................................. 3,832,527 8.4

Contains adopted children ................................................. 166,058 0.4

Does not contain adopted children . . . ....................................... 3,666,469 8.1

Racial composition of the household ....................................... 45,490,049 100.0

All household members of same race . ...................................... 41,127,347 90.4

Contains adopted children ............................................... 1,378,981 3.0

Does not contain adopted children . . ...................................... 39,748,366 87.4

Contains members of different races2 ....................................... 4,362,702 9.6

Contains adopted children ............................................... 308,127 0.7

Does not contain adopted children . . ...................................... 4,054,575 8.9

Hispanic origin composition of the household............................... 45,490,049 100.0

All household members of same origin ...................................... 43,294,398 95.2

Contains adopted children ............................................... 1,545,441 3.4

Does not contain adopted children . . ...................................... 41,748,957 91.8

Contains members of differing origin3 ....................................... 2,195,651 4.8

Contains adopted children ............................................... 141,667 0.3

Does not contain adopted children . . ...................................... 2,053,984 4.5

1

Householder had both a parent/parent-in-law and a child in the household, or householder had both a child and grandchild in the

household. 2

Not all household members report the same group, where race groups are: White alone, Black alone, American Indian and Alaska

Native alone, Asian alone, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone, Some Other Race alone, or at least one household member reports

multiple race groups. 3

Household contains members who are Hispanic and members who are non-Hispanic.

Note: Households with sons and daughters of any age of the householder.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.

38 The difference between the percentage

of households that contain adopted children

only and the percentage of households that

contain adopted and biological children is

not statistically significant. 
householder included biological

children, adopted children, and

stepchildren. 

Among the 1.7 million households

containing adopted children of the

householder, 82 percent had just

one adopted child, while 15 percent had two adopted children.

Just 3 percent of these households

had three or more adopted children. In addition, 166,000 households with an adopted child of the

householder were three-generation

households, including either a

householder who had both a parent or parent-in-law and an adopted child, or a householder who

had both an adopted child and a

grandchild in the same household. 

Table 8 shows the number of

households with children of the

householder that were composed

of people of different races or were

made up of both Hispanics and

non-Hispanics. In the vast majority

of these households (90 percent),

all members were of the same

race. Of the 1.7 million households with adopted children, about

308,000 (18 percent) contained

members of different races. The

adoption of foreign-born children

by U.S. residents played a large

role in creating these households.

Of the 43.8 million households,

which did not contain adopted children, 4.1 million (9 percent) included people of different race groups.

Nearly all households with children

of the householder were composed

of either all Hispanic or all nonHispanic members: 95 percent;

142,000 households with adopted

children contained both Hispanic

and non-Hispanic people, representing 8 percent of all households

with adopted children.

STEPCHILDREN: CHANGING

USE OF THE TERM

Traditionally, the word “stepchild”

was used to mean a child who

came to be related to a person

through marriage to the child’s parent. However, as marriage, remarriage, and cohabitation patterns

have changed, the words

“stepchild” and “stepfamily” now

may include some families that are

formed by cohabitation rather than

marriage. For example, unmarried

people may identify the biological

child of their current partner as

their stepchild, and may either

have been previously married, or

never married.39 The living

arrangements of householders who

reported a stepchild living with

them indicate usage of this more

recent definition. 

Table 9 shows the distribution of

households with stepchildren who

were under 18 years old by the

sex, marital status, and living

arrangements of the householder.

Households are shown separately

for male and female householders,

since the distribution across the

various types of living arrangements differs by the sex of the

stepparent. Nearly all stepfathers

U.S. Census Bureau 19

Table 9.

Households With Stepchildren Under 18 by Householder's Living Arrangements: 2000

(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see

www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf)

Living arrangements and marital

status of the householder

Sex of stepparent

Male Female

Number Percent Number Percent

Total households with stepchildren ............... 2,281,620 100.0 147,242 100.0

Married .............................................. 2,063,999 90.5 94,674 64.3

Not married........................................... 217,621 9.5 52,568 35.7

Has unmarried partner . .............................. 184,965 8.1 32,293 21.9

Never married .................................... 99,754 4.4 14,982 10.2

Formerly married .................................. 85,211 3.7 17,311 11.8

Possible partner1 .................................... 12,448 0.5 2,798 1.9

Never married .................................... 5,534 0.2 1,165 0.8

Formerly married .................................. 6,914 0.3 1,633 1.1

No partner. . . ....................................... 20,208 0.9 17,477 11.9

Never married .................................... 5,574 0.2 5,638 3.8

Formerly married .................................. 14,634 0.6 11,839 8.0

1

Possible partner is indicated when there is only one opposite sex unrelated unmarried adult at least 15 years old and within 15 years of

the age of the householder, and there are no other adults present.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation.

39 See Andrew J. Cherlin and Frank F.

Furstenberg, Jr. “Stepfamilies in the United

States: A Reconsideration,” Annual Review of

Sociology, 1994, Vol. 20, pp. 359-381; and

Larry L. Bumpass, R. Kelly Raley, and James A.

Sweet. “The Changing Character of

Stepfamilies: Nonmarital Childbearing”

Demography, 1995, Vol. 32, No. 3, 

pp. 425-436. 
had a partner: 91 percent had a

spouse and another 8 percent had

an unmarried partner. A lower proportion of stepmothers had a partner: 64 percent had a spouse and

22 percent had an unmarried partner. Together, 217,000 stepparents who reported unmarried partners identified children under 18 in

their households as stepchildren.40

These children were likely the biological children of their current

partner rather than the biological

children of their ex-spouse. In

fact, 54 percent of the stepfathers

and 46 percent of the stepmothers

who had an unmarried partner had

never been married. 

The proportions by sex of stepparents who had a possible partner in

the household and were never

married were similar: 44 percent of

stepfathers and 42 percent of stepmothers. Lower proportions of

stepparents who did not live with a

partner were never married: 

28 percent for stepfathers and 

32 percent for stepmothers. These

data reflect the changing usage of

the terms “stepchild” and “stepfamily,” since they show that some

householders considered themselves to be stepparents even

though they were not married to

the biological parent of the child in

their household. Indeed, 51 percent of the currently unmarried

stepfathers and 41 percent of the

currently unmarried stepmothers

had never been married.

OTHER SOURCES OF DATA

Several nationally representative

surveys conducted by government

agencies provide estimates of the

number of adopted and stepchildren along with their families’

characteristics. Survey of Income

and Program Participation (SIPP)

data make it possible to identify

whether a child lives with one or

two parents and the type of parent–biological, step, adopted, or

foster. The SIPP sample for the

1996 panel comprised about

37,000 households. For more

information see the report “Living

Arrangements of Children: 1996”

at www.census.gov/population/

www/socdemo/child/la-child.html.

The National Survey of Family

Growth (NSFG) collected information from women aged 18 to 44

about whether they had ever

adopted a child or sought to adopt

a child. For more information see

the NSFG Web site at

www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg.htm.

The National Council for Adoption

(NCFA), a private nonprofit organization, has conducted several studies in which it contacted all 50

states and the District of Columbia

to gain information about the number and type of adoptions within

the state in 1982, 1986, 1992, and

1996. Data from the surveys, as

well as an explanation of the survey methodology for the 1992 and

1996 surveys are included in the

Adoption Factbook III, a comprehensive resource for information

about adoption. See the NCFA web

site at www.ncfa-usa.org for more

information. 

A source for information on adoptions in the United States is the

Adoption and Foster Care Analysis

and Reporting System (AFCARS),

under which states are required to

collect data on all adopted children

placed by the state child welfare

agency and adopted children who

are receiving assistance or services

from the state agency directly or

under contract with another agency,

whether public or private. For more

information, see www.acf.dhhs.gov/

programs/cb/dis/afcars, the Web

site for the Children’s Bureau of the

Administration for Children and

Families. 

A source for information on international adoptions is the U.S. State

Department Web site: www.travel.

state.gov/adopt.html. A link on the

site (www.travel.state.gov/

orphan_numbers.html) provides

counts of immigrant visas issued to

orphans coming to the United

States, presumably for adoption by

U.S. citizens. This information is

helpful in tracking the number of

international adoptions by U.S. citizens, as well as the country of birth

of the adopted children. 

There are several comprehensive

Web sites devoted to information

about adoption. One site which

also contains information about

adoption statistics is the National

Adoption Information Clearinghouse

(NAIC ) at www.calib.com/naic a

comprehensive resource on all

aspects of adoption which is a service of the Children’s Bureau of the

Administration for Children and

Families. The National Adoption

Information Clearinghouse provides

an overview of the sources of available data. 

DATA QUALITY

Census 2000 sample data provide

the most comprehensive national

data on adopted children available

since 1975,41 and include a larger

sample of stepchildren than other

20 U.S. Census Bureau

40 Besides the cases in which respondents

reported household members as stepchildren of the householder even though the

householder was unmarried, it is possible

that some of these family situations were

created when either the stepparent’s marital

status or the child’s relationship to the

householder was imputed. However, this

affects only a small proportion of the cases.

Just 7 percent of stepchildren who had a

never-married householder received an

imputed value for their relationship to the

householder. Eleven percent of the nevermarried householders who reported having

stepchildren had an imputed value for their

marital status. So, the vast majority of

households with unmarried stepparents were

reported as such.

41 The federal government collected data

from states on finalized adoptions between

1944 and 1975. See Kathy Stolley. “Statistics

on Adoption in the United States,” The

Future of Children. 1993, Vol. 3, No. 1, 

pp. 1-42.
surveys as well. The ongoing

Current Population Survey does not

allow identification of the type of

relationship between parents and

children, and the Survey of Income

and Program Participation (SIPP),

has a sample of about 37,000

households. The National Survey

of Family Growth interviews

women about the attitudes they

hold, plans they have made, and

actions they have taken regarding

adoption, but it does not provide

information about adoptive families or adopted children. The

National Health Interview Survey,

which identifies the type of relationship between selected children

and their parents, had a sample of

about 39,000 households (in

2001). 

The estimate of the number of

adopted children under 18 years

old using Census 2000 sample

data is consistent with the estimate from 1996 data from the SIPP.

The SIPP survey instrument collects

information about each child under

18 years, regardless of whether

they are a child of the householder.

In the SIPP, for each child who has

a parent present in the household,

the respondent is asked to identify

whether the parent is the biological, step, foster, or adoptive parent

of the child. The number of adopted children under 18 estimated by

SIPP 1996 was 1,484,000,42 of

which 98 percent were the children

of the householder. Using the SIPP

data as a guide, the Census 2000

estimate accounts for nearly all

adopted children under 18. 

Long-form data from Census 2000

show 1,586,000 people under 18

years old who were designated as

the adopted child of the

householder.43 The total number of

adopted sons and daughters of the

householder of any age was

2,059,000. 

Regarding estimates of stepchildren, 1996 SIPP data showed 

4.9 million stepchildren44 under 18

were living with at least one stepparent, while Census 2000 longform data showed 3.2 million children under 18 were the stepchild

of the householder. Census 2000

data, then, may capture about two

thirds of those children under 18

years old who lived with at least

one stepparent. We would expect

the Census 2000 estimate to be

lower than that of the SIPP, since

SIPP data indicate the presence and

type of both of the child’s parents,

while Census 2000 identifies only

the type of relationship of the child

to the householder. Thus, when

the child’s stepparent is not the

householder, we are unable to

count this child as a stepchild.

Some children who are listed in

this report as biological children of

the householder may also be the

stepchildren of the spouse of the

householder in his or her second

marriage. Other children may have

a stepparent who did not reside in

the household in which the child

was counted in Census 2000.

Nationally representative surveys

do not generally collect information about the relationship

between household members and

nonresident parents.

ACCURACY OF THE

ESTIMATES

The data contained in this report

are based on the sample of households who responded to the

Census 2000 long form.

Nationally, approximately 1 out of

every 6 housing units was included

in this sample. As a result, the

sample estimates may differ somewhat from the100-percent figures

that would have been obtained if

all housing units, people within

those housing units, and people

living in group quarters had been

enumerated using the same questionnaires, instructions, enumerators, and so forth. The sample

estimates also differ from the values that would have been obtained

from different samples of housing

units, people within those housing

units, and people living in group

quarters. The deviation of a sample estimate from the average of

all possible samples is called the

sampling error. 

In addition to the variability that

arises from the sampling procedures, both sample data and 

100-percent data are subject to

nonsampling error. Nonsampling

error may be introduced during

any of the various complex operations used to collect and process

data. Such errors may include:

not enumerating every household

or every person in the population,

failing to obtain all required information from the respondents,

obtaining incorrect or inconsistent

information, and recording information incorrectly. In addition,

errors can occur during the field

review of the enumerators’ work,

during clerical handling of the census questionnaires, or during the

electronic processing of the questionnaires.

U.S. Census Bureau 21

42 Jason Fields. Living Arrangements of

Children: Fall 1996, Current Population

Survey Reports, P70-74, U.S. Census Bureau,

Washington, DC, 2001.

43 All of the Census 2000 estimates in

this report are made using sample data.

Aggregate numbers of children of the householder and other totals may differ from the

counts based on 100 percent Census 2000

data. 44 Jason Fields. Living Arrangements of

Children: Fall 1996, Current Population

Survey Reports, P70-74, U.S. Census Bureau,

Washington, DC, 2001.
Nonsampling error may affect the

data in two ways: (1) errors that

are introduced randomly will

increase the variability of the data

and, therefore, should be reflected

in the standard errors; and (2)

errors that tend to be consistent in

one direction will bias both sample

and 100-percent data in that direction. For example, if respondents

consistently tend to under report

their incomes, then the resulting

estimates of households or families by income category will tend

to be understated for the higher

income categories and overstated

for the lower income categories.

Such biases are not reflected in the

standard errors.

While it is impossible to completely

eliminate error from an operation

as large and complex as the decennial census, the Census Bureau

attempts to control the sources of

such error during the data collection and processing operations.

The primary sources of error and

the programs instituted to control

error in Census 2000 are described

in detail in Summary File 3

Technical Documentation under

Chapter 8, “Accuracy of the Data,”

located at www.census.gov/prod/

cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf. 

All statements in this Census 2000

Special Report have undergone statistical testing and all comparisons

are significant at the 90-percent

confidence level, unless otherwise

noted. The estimates in tables,

maps, and other figures may vary

from actual values due to sampling

and nonsampling errors. As a

result, estimates in one category

may not be significantly different

from estimates assigned to a different category. Further information on the accuracy of the data is

located at www.census.gov/

prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf. For

further information on the computation and use of standard errors,

contact the Decennial Statistical

Studies Division at 301-763-4242. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information on the children’s relationship to householders

in the United States, visit the U.S.

Census Bureau’s Internet site at

www.census.gov/population/www/

socdemo/ms-la.html. Data on children and on the relationship of

various household members to the

householder from Census 2000

Summary File 3 were released on a

state-by-state basis during the

summer of 2002. Census 2000

Summary File 3 data are available

on the Internet via 

factfinder.census.gov and for purchase on CD-ROM and on DVD. 

For information on confidentiality

protection, nonsampling error,

sampling error, and definitions,

also see www.census.gov/

prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf or contact our Customer Services Center

at 301-763-INFO (4636).

Information on other population

and housing topics is presented in

the Census 2000 Briefs and Census

2000 Special Reports series, located

on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Web

site at www.census.gov/population/

www/cen2000/briefs.html. These

series present information on race,

Hispanic origin, age, sex, household

type, housing tenure, and other

social, economic, and housing characteristics.

For more information about

Census 2000, including data products, call our Customer Services

Center at 301-763-INFO (4636), or

e-mail webmaster@census.gov.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to acknowledge the

assistance of Kelly Holder in the

preparation and development of

tables in this report.

22 U.S. Census Bureau