The growth of single-parent families in the United States is well documented. But what communities are best to support the nearly 25 million children are being raised primarily by one parent? The articles will help address this issue with a number of criteria or understandable analysis.
Finding a new place to put a base is difficult enough if you are single, let alone if you now acquire the “mother” status and a child, or more, on your hip. By this time you’re dealing with more liability in a different dimension.
Only recently, the two-parent families’ standardized our system of family-centric society. Single mothers and single parents generally were socially rare, even seen as an abomination by the mainstream groups. But if cultural perspectives have warmed to this once-unconventional family structure, mothers choose for their children alone are no longer considered social pariahs.
Today, single-mom families account for a quarter of all US households, nearly 10 million, far surpassing their single-father counterparts by a good eight million. But whether by will or not, the role of an unbound parent can be something of a financial rope act, especially if we are talking of a single mother on a single income.
Here are some thoughts that are worth our consideration as single parent before listing the cities that meets the requirements:
- Will a single parent be able to offset the rents (or mortgage) and childcare? As any working parent knows, taking care of a child cost a fortune. So we take the average income in each community, median housing costs and average day care expenses for a child and a 4 year old. We found significant differences in average day care costs from state to state with a 2013 study by Child Care Aware of America and the Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR & R).
• Is the community stable? Poverty is a big problem for single-parent families. The census estimates that almost half of all families headed by single mothers (representing almost 85% of single parents) live in poverty. We gave more weight to communities like Baltimore, Maryland, which was below the poverty line the lowest number of single mothers – only 4%. From recent statistics, cities having a high record of single mothers living below the poverty line were respectively, California, as well as Delano, having 68.2% of single mom training their children in poverty.
- What is the level of accessibility to decent quality of life by single? Proper attention was giving to important measures or indicators as to the quality of life for single mothers: commuting times (knowing that the longer travel times may increase for child care expenses and pain quality time with family), the overall strength of the schools – based on data from Great schools – and the likelihood of having other families with similar structures also to find support.
Major factors to consider:
- Single-parent families are an important demographic shift of communities everywhere. The number of families with children under 18 headed by single parents in 1960 was 8.2%. In 2012, 28% of all US children lived in a home headed by one of the parents, according to census data.
- Income opportunity and stability are major concerns for single parents. Approximately and average of the 20 million children being cared for by one parent are meddling in poverty in line with the 2013 statistical data.
After give much thought to these considerations and important factors above the following cities below meets the demands and is recommend for single parents.
NB: note however that, this article gave much consideration to single parent mom and not dad, as a result of the fact that majority of the single parent family in U.S are the single mom. Although, the principles discussed also applies to single parent dad.
Here are the best cities that top the list for single parents living:
Top 12 Cities Recommend For Single Parents
- Bartlett Tennessee
- Frisco Texas
- West Des Moines, Iowa
- Conway, Arkansas
- Owensboro, Kentucky
- Royal Oak, Michigan
- Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
- Rogers, Arkansas
- Bossier City, Louisiana
- Cedar Park, Texas
- Edmond Oklahoma
- Lawton Oklahoma