The Institute for Family Studies says married-couple households are concentrated in affluent suburbs, but its figures come from 2020 Census data and do not show how family structure has changed over time.
A new report by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) has mapped what it calls “marriage deserts” in American cities. In the driest area, south-central and south-east Detroit, only 13% of householders aged 15 to 64 are married. In parts of Cleveland, Washington DC, Milwaukee and Detroit, fewer than a quarter of households with children are headed by a married couple. The report was published on 8 October 2026, but its rankings use 2020 Census data.
Where marriage is rarest
The IFS examined two measures in geographic areas that generally contain 100,000 to 200,000 people. One is the share of householders aged 15 to 64 who are married. The other is the share of households with children headed by married couples. The report contrasts “marriage deserts” with suburban “married-family gardens”.
The lowest rates of married householders were:
- 13%: Detroit City (south-central and south-east), Michigan
- 14%: Milwaukee County (City of Milwaukee Central), Wisconsin; Cleveland City (East) and Bratenahl Village, Ohio; District of Columbia (East)
- 15%: St Louis City North, Missouri; Columbus (Central) and Grandview Heights, Ohio
- 16%: Atlanta (Fulton County Central and Southwest Atlanta), Georgia; Cincinnati City, Ohio
- 17%: Boston City (Allston, Brighton and Fenway); Chicago City (South)
On households with children led by married couples, Cleveland City (East) and Bratenahl Village had the lowest share of the areas studied. The highest of the low-ranking areas was Louisville/Jefferson County (Northwest) in Kentucky, at 26%. The research notes put the lowest-ranking deserts at roughly 18% to 26%.
Such households were mostly found in affluent suburban regions, with fewer in big cities and parts of the south-east. At the other extreme, up to 79% of householders aged 15 to 64 are married in the largest “gardens”, with Fort Bend County (Northwest), Texas, at the top. In the highest-ranking gardens, about 86% to 89% of households with children are headed by married couples.
The largest grouped desert, according to the source, covers Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The largest grouped garden stretches from the suburbs of Washington DC towards Philadelphia and holds about 386,000 households with children.
Why the IFS says it matters
The IFS said “family structure is closely associated with economic mobility and broader measures of social capital”. It added that “the share of children growing up in two-parent households is one of the strongest predictors of upward mobility within a community”.
Ken Burchfiel, an IFS research fellow, told Fox News Digital that marriage and raising children “force you to kind of die to yourself and live for others”. He said: “When you have lots of parents, lots of husbands and wives in a region, I imagine just overall the cultural focus is less on ‘How can I get ahead in life’ and more on ‘What can I do for my family?’”
Having lived in New York for several years, he said he understood the findings. The decision to marry could be hard for some, he said, “not just due to financial concerns; it’s also a matter of culture and, admittedly, perhaps a matter of affordability”. He continued: “[Having] a high salary does not mean that it’s easy to buy a house, raise a family. It can still be extremely difficult and probably many of the people in those areas who do get married find themselves moving out to the suburbs.”
What the figures do not show
The 13% in Detroit does not mean that only 13% of families there have two parents. It refers to married householders aged 15 to 64, a group that includes people living alone and others without children. An area with many students, young professionals or single-person households can have a low marriage rate without an equally low rate of two-parent families. The figure also says nothing about children living with unmarried parents who live together.
The report is also a snapshot. Its rankings rest on 2020 Census data, so they describe differences between areas rather than recent changes in marriage rates. The headline claim that nuclear families are disappearing goes further than this dataset can establish.
The national picture
Pew Research Center analysis published in March 2026 gives a longer view. In 1970, 82% of US children under 18 lived with two married parents. By 2024 the figure was 63%. The proportion has stayed around 62% to 63% since 2010, which suggests a long-term shift rather than a sharp recent fall.
Pew also found large differences by parental education. In 2024, the share of children living with two married parents was:
- 80% where parents had a bachelor’s degree or higher
- 57% with some college
- 49% for high school graduates
- 47% with less than high school
The figures do not show that education itself causes higher marriage rates, as income, age and other factors may contribute.
US Census Bureau figures show that about 3.2 million children under 18 lived with cohabiting parents in 2023, up from 2.2 million in 2007. In 2023, 75% of children under six and 68% of those aged 12 to 17 lived with two parents. The IFS measure of married-couple households does not capture unmarried two-parent families.
Research published this year by the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University found 65% of children lived with two biological parents in 2025, against 64% in 2019. The researchers described children’s family structures as relatively stable in recent decades. That measure is defined differently from Pew’s, so the two sets of figures should not be compared directly.
