Single-mother households are declining in Prince George’s County, a slump that’s bucking trends in its neighboring Washington suburbs, new census data show. Single mother households fell by 5 percent or 1,600 in Prince George’s over the last decade. There were also 12 percent fewer two-parent households, according to the data.
Demographers attribute the change to a recent trend of blacks leaving the East Coast for the South. According to estimates from the Census Bureau, non-Hispanic blacks in the county decreased by about 24,000 between 2008 and 2010 — and that likely includes families, said Brookings Institution Senior Fellow William Frey.
| Parts of region see decline in single moms | |||||
| Share of | Share of | Share of | Share of | Actual change | |
| married* | married* | single | single | in single | |
| hhlds | hhlds | moms | moms | mom | |
| 2010 | 2000 | 2010 | 2000 | hhlds | |
| Washington, D.C | 7.9% | 8.4% | 7.9% | 9.9% | -3,378 |
| Alexandria | 13.2% | 12.4% | 4.5% | 5.0% | -60 |
| Montgomery | 25.6% | 27.7% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 2,018 |
| Prince George’s | 17.8% | 21.4% | 10.1% | 11.3% | -1,608 |
| Arlington | 14.5% | 14.8% | 2.8% | 3.4% | -187 |
| Fairfax | 28.0% | 30.1% | 4.8% | 4.8% | 1,969 |
| Loudoun | 39.1% | 36.6% | 5.1% | 4.9% | 2,360 |
| Prince William | 32.0% | 34.2% | 7.1% | 7.5% | 2,214 |
| *Husband-wife households w/kids | |||||
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau | |||||
Changing attitudes about marriage and families has also affected the percentage of households with children in Prince George’s.
“Increasingly what we’re seeing is people opting out of marriage,” said Larry Shinagawa, a University of Maryland demographics expert. “Times are such that it’s very difficult to say what the future’s going to be. … So a lot of people are opting for a lifestyle that’s fairly reasonable but at the same time one where they are able to make their own choices.”
Single moms are also on the decline in D.C., Arlington and Alexandria where gentrification and an Influx of young professionals and baby boomers are taking over. The recession and its toll on service jobs also played a roll, said Shinagawa.
“We’re seeing the D.C. area become more reliant on government service,” he said. “A lot of single mothers are more likely not as educated as [those jobs require], so there’s a good likelihood that they’re not finding the job opportunities in this area.”
But in other areas single-mother households increased. Loudoun County actually saw it’s percentage of single-mother households increase over the decade. The percentage of single moms in Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince William rose roughly in line with the total increase in households there.
Loudoun’s rise is attributed to that area’s development boom, which also attracted more households with kids.
Alexandria was the only other jurisdiction to see its portion of households with children increase over the last decade, up 17 percent to nearly 9,000 households.
“Alexandria is a pretty high-income area overall, and higher income and higher educated groups are more stable and much more likely to be married with children,” said Pat Fagan, director of the Family Research Council’s Marriage and Religion Institute.
