A new report says about 1 in 5 parents in the United States rely on a relative for child care.
The U.S. Census Beaure published the numbers, indicating that just over 60% of parents living with at least one child minor said they did not have formal child care arrangements.
In a survey conducted from September to December 2022, about 1 in 5 reported child care was provided by a relative who was not a parent. Additionally, 8.4% said using a daycare center, and 5% said using either nonrelative care, nursery or preschool, or before/after school care. 3% said using family daycare, and only 1% said participating in the Head Start program.
Moreover, the numbers also indicate that the lack of child care has impacted employment rates amongst parents. Around 15% of parents who did not work the last seven days leading up to the survey said that they were unemployed to provide childcare to their kids who weren’t in school or daycare. These numbers were consistent with parents of young kids, making up for 35% of those parents in the survey.
This issue has specifically impacted mothers in overwhelming numbers. According to the data, almost 9 out of 10 parents(87%) who reported not working to provide childcare for their children were women parents.
Regarding income, lower-income households were the most affected within the demographic in this survey. Up to 67% of households with annual incomes under $50,000 reported not having child care, in comparison to 52% of families who earn over $200,000 per year. That’s to say, as household income increases, so does the usage of daycare centers, before and after care, school care, etc.
The official website of the U.S. Census Bureau says that a huge factor on the matter is the COVID-19 global pandemic, which disrupted an estimated 62.7 million parents in the country with kids under the age of 18, as paid, unpaid or subsidized child care was halted for millions. And, the end of the pandemic relief funds could probably continue to disrupt the parental life of many households for years to come, the Bureau predcits.