ALEXANDRIA, Va. (ABP) — Nearly 6 million grandparents live in the same household with their grandchildren in the United States, and 40 percent of those grandparents are the primary care-givers for their grandchildren.
One third of grandparent care-givers live in “skipped generation” households, where neither parent of the grandchildren is present.
The data, based on the 2000 Census, was released by the U.S. Census Bureau at a conference in Alexandria, Va. The report, “Grandparents Living With Grandchildren: 2000,” shows the geographic distribution of grandparents living with grandchildren and serving as care-givers, as well as the length of time the grandparents cared for the grandchildren.
Among the report's highlights:
– Nineteen percent of grandparent care-givers were living in poverty in 1999. The highest proportion of grandparent care-givers in poverty was in the South (21 percent), and the lowest proportions were in the West (16 percent) and the Midwest (15 percent).
– Almost all grandparents responsible for grandchildren were either the householder or the householder's spouse (94 percent).
– Those grandparents younger than 60 were more likely to be grandparent care-givers than were grandparents age 60 and over.
– Racial and ethnic differences were prominent among care-giving grandparents. Non-white grandparents were at least three times more likely to be live-in care-givers than (non-Hispanic) white grandparents. Although the majority of grandparents living with grandchildren were (non-Hispanic) white (2.7 million), they comprised only 2 percent of the non-Hispanic white population age 30 and over. By comparison, 6 percent to 10 percent of other racial and ethnic groups lived with their grandchildren.
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