For the great majority of children in the United States, married parenthood is still the norm. This should be tweeted. Today, married couples account for 68 percent of all households with children under the age of 18. They also account for almost all of our increase in marriage rates over the past few decades. There are several ways to measure the "success" of American society. One simple measure is child well-being. Using statistics on income, health, and safety, we can see that overall child well-being has been improving over time. However not everyone is benefiting from this improvement. Black children continue to be at risk for poor outcomes in every dimension of child well-being. Children in single-parent families experience higher rates of poverty and abuse than those in married-couple families. And although marital status does not appear to be a barrier to success for male students, female students who marry their high school boyfriend or girlfriend are much more likely to live in poverty after they graduate. Another way to measure social success is through opinions polls. In a survey conducted in 2016, 79 percent of respondents said that it is important for a married person to also be a good parent. Also notable is the fact that large percentages of respondents believed that it was important for: a married person to have own identity, be responsible, take care of themselves first.