Non-marital childbearing has increased
dramatically since the 1970s. At that time,
about 10% of all births were to unmarried
parents. In 2006, the number was nearly 40%.
To gain a better understanding of what these
trends imply for parents, children and society,
the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study
has been following approximately 5,000
children born in large U.S. cities between 1998
and 2000, including a large oversample of
children born to unmarried parents. The study
has yielded a number of important findings.