The nuclear family, consisting of a mother and their children may be more an American ideal than an American reality. Of course, the so-called traditional American family was always more varied than we had been led to believe. It reflects the very different races, ethnics, classes and religious customs among different American groups.
The most recent government statistics reveal that only about one third of all current American families fit the traditional mold and another third consists of married couples who have no children living at home. Of the final third, about 20 percent of American households are single people, usually women over 65 years of age. A small percentage, about 3 percent of the total, consists of unmarried people who choose to live together and the rest, about 7 percent, are single, usually divorced parents with at least one child.