Census Bureau News -- Profile America Facts for Features: Mother's Day: May 12, 2013

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The driving force behind Mother's Day was Anna Jarvis, who organized observances in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. As the annual celebration became popular around the country, Jarvis asked members of Congress to set aside a day to honor mothers. She succeeded in 1914, when Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/DC91889LOGO)  

How Many Mothers

4.1 million
Number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 who gave birth in the past 12 months.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 American Community Survey, Table B1302  
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_B13002&prodType=table

53%
Percentage of 15- to 44-year-old women who were mothers in 2010.
Source: Fertility of American Women: 2010
http://www.census.gov/hhes/fertility/data/cps/2010.html Table 1

81%
Percentage of women who had become mothers by age 40 to 44 as of 2010. In 1976, 90 percent of women in that age group had given birth.
Source: Fertility of American Women: 2010
http://www.census.gov/hhes/fertility/data/cps/2010.html Table 1

2,449
The total fertility rate or estimated number of total births per 1,000 women in Utah in 2010 (based on current birth rates by age), which led the nation. At the other end of the spectrum is Rhode Island, with a total fertility rate of 1,630.5 births per 1,000 women.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Table 12, page 42
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_01.pdf    

20%
Percentage of all women age 15 to 44 who have had two children. About 47 percent had no children, 17 percent had one, 10 percent had three and about 5 percent had four or more.
Source: Fertility of American Women: 2010, Detailed Tables, Table 1
http://www.census.gov/hhes/fertility/data/cps/2010.html 

89.7%
Percentage of all children who lived with their biological mothers in 2012. About 1.2 percent of all children lived with a stepmother.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements, 2012 CPS, Table C9
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2012.html

Recent Births

3.954 million
Number of births registered in the United States in 2011. Of this number, 329,797 were to teens 15 to 19 and 7,651 to women age 45 to 49.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_05.pdf

25.4
Average age of women in 2010 when they gave birth for the first time, up from 25.2 years in 2009. The increase in the mean age from 2009 to 2010 reflects, in part, the relatively large decline in births to women under age 25.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Page 6 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_01.pdf and http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_01_tables.pdf            

29.2%
The percentage of mothers who had given birth in the past 12 months who had a bachelor's degree or higher and 84 percent of mothers have at least a high school diploma.
Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American FactFinder, Table S1301
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_S1301&prodType=table

Jacob and Sophia
The most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 2011.
Source: Social Security Administration
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

68
Number of births in the past year per 1,000 women age 15 to 50 with a graduate or professional degree. The number was 57 per 1,000 for women whose highest level of education was a bachelor's degree.
Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American FactFinder, Table S1301
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_S1301&prodType=table

Stay-at-Home Moms

5 million
Number of stay-at-home moms in 2012 — statistically unchanged from 2009, 2010 and 2011— down from 5.3 million in 2008. In 2012, 24 percent of married-couple family groups with children under 15 had a stay-at-home mother, up from 21 percent in 2000. In 2007, before the recession, stay-at-home mothers were found in 24 percent of married-couple family groups with children under 15, not statistically different from the percentage in 2012.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements Table SHP-1
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/families.html

Compared with other moms, stay-at-home moms in 2007 were more likely: 

• Younger (44 percent were under age 35, compared with 38 percent of mothers in the labor force).
• Hispanic (27 percent, compared with 16 percent of mothers in the labor force).
• Foreign-born (34 percent, compared with 19 percent of mothers in the labor force).
• Living with a child under age 5 (57 percent, compared with 43 percent of mothers in
• the labor force).
• Without a high school diploma (19 percent versus 8 percent of mothers in the labor force).

Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2007 <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/p20-561.pdf>

Employed Moms

827,907
Number of child care centers across the country in 2010. These included 75,695 child day care services employing 859,416 workers and another 752,212 self-employed people or other businesses without paid employees. Many mothers turn to these centers to help juggle motherhood and careers.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/ and
Nonemployer Statistics: 2010 http://www.census.gov/econ/nonemployer/

62.1%
Percentage of women age 16 to 50 who had a birth in the past 12 months who were in the labor force.
Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American FactFinder, Table S1301
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_S1301&prodType=table

Single Moms

10.3 million
The number of single mothers living with children younger than 18 in 2012, up from 3.4 million in 1970.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/families.html Table FM-2

5.9 million
Number of custodial mothers who were owed child support in 2009.
Source: Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2009, Table 1
http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-240.pdf

36%
Percentage of births in the past 12 months that were to women age 15 to 50 who were unmarried (including divorced, widowed and never married women).
Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, Table B1302
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_B13002&prodType=table

In 2011, 407,873 mothers who had a birth in the past 12 months were living with a cohabiting partner.
Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, Table B1304
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_B13004&prodType=table

Mothers Remembered

16,182
Number of florist establishments nationwide in 2010. The 70,575 employees in floral shops across our nation will be especially busy preparing, selling and delivering floral arrangements for Mother's Day.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 <http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/>

10,258
Number of employees of the 103 greeting-card publishing establishments in 2010.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/

14,654
The number of cosmetics, beauty supplies and perfume stores nationwide in 2010. Perfume is a popular gift given on Mother's Day.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/

23,739
Number of jewelry stores in the United States in 2010 — the place to purchase necklaces, earrings and other timeless pieces for mom.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/

Following is a list of observances typically covered by the Census Bureau's Facts for Features series:

Editor's note: The preceding data were collected from a variety of sources and may be subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Facts for Features are customarily released about two months before an observance in order to accommodate magazine production timelines. Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau's Public Information Office: telephone: 301-763-3030; or e-mail: [email protected].

Contact: Public Information Office
301-763-3030
[email protected]

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

21%

more press release views with 

Request a Demo