The Coachella Valley has more single mothers raising families than it did a decade ago, but the majority of children are still living in traditional, two-parent homes, new census numbers show. In 2000, 22.6 percent of family households with children in the valley s nine cities were headed by a female householder with no husband present, up from 16.7 percent in 1990. The 2000 number was higher than the statewide average of 19.2, or nearly one in every five family homes with children in California headed by a single mother. Family households in the valley s nine cities headed up by single fathers increased only slightly, from 7.3 percent in 1990 to 8.3 percent in 2000, according to census numbers released today. The increase in single-mother homes is not necessarily a negative but more likely the positive result of an increased awareness about domestic violence, said Virginia Ortega, a domestic violence specialist.
Women are more confident now.
Despite the rise in family households run by single mothers, nearly 70 percent of family households with children in valley cities are made up of two married parents and their kids, census numbers show. The average was only slightly higher throughout California, at 72.6 percent. The city with the smallest percentage of traditional family homes, where both parents were married and lived at home, was Desert Hot Springs. Numbers also show the average size of the Coachella Valley household is 1.92 people. Coachella had the largest family household size with an average of 4.72 people per home.