Community Corner

By the Numbers: Fun Father's Day Facts

We always saw dad crunching numbers growing up. Now, we throw the numbers back at dad.

Today is Father's Day and let Patch be the first to say how much we appreciate all the hard-work and care they put into everything they do.

Here are a few fun Father's Day facts to throw at your dad:

70.1 million: Estimated number of fathers across the nation.

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25.3 million: The number of fathers that are part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2010.

Of those:

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  • 22 percent were raising three or more children younger than 18 (among married-couple family households only).
  • 3 percent lived in someone else's home.

1.8 million: Number of single fathers in 2010; and 15 percent of single parents were men.

Of those:

  • 9 percent were raising three or more children younger than 18.
  • About 46 percent were divorced, 30 percent were never married, 19 percent were separated, and 6 percent were widowed.
  • 39 percent had an annual family income of $50,000 or more.

8,111: The number of men's clothing stores around the country (as of 2008), a good place to buy dad a tie or shirt.

16,010: The number of hardware stores (as of 2008), a place to buy hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers and other items high on the list of Father's Day gifts. 

22,116: Number of sporting goods stores in 2008. These stores are good places to purchase traditional gifts for dad, such as fishing rods and golf clubs.

81.5 million: The number of Americans who participated in a barbecue in the last year — it's probably safe to assume many of these barbecues took place on Father's Day.

154,000: Estimated number of stay-at-home dads in 2010. These married fathers with children younger than 15 have remained out of the labor force for at least one year primarily so they can care for the family while their wives work outside the home. These fathers cared for 287,000 children.

$2.8 billion: Amount of child support received by custodial fathers in 2007; they were due $4.3 billion. In contrast, custodial mothers received $18.6 billion of the $29.8 billion in support that was due.

45 percent: Percentage of custodial fathers who received all child support that was due in 2007, not significantly different from the corresponding percentage for custodial mothers.

67 percent: Percentage of custodial fathers receiving non-cash support, such as gifts or coverage of expenses, on behalf of their children. The corresponding proportion for mothers was 56 percent.

53 percent and 71 percent: Percentages of children younger than 6 who ate breakfast and dinner, respectively, with their father every day in 2006. The corresponding percentages who ate with their mother were 58 percent and 80 percent. (The percentages of children who ate breakfast with their mother or father, respectively, were not significantly different from each another.)

36 percent: Percentage of children younger than six who had 15 or more outings with their father in the last month, as of 2006.

6: Average times children ages 3 to 5 were read to by their fathers in the past week, as of 2006.

66 percent: Percentage of children younger than 6 who were praised three or more times a day by their fathers.


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