Teens Children and Money - Family Income

Almost all children are financially dependent upon their parents, with their financial condition directly dependent on how much their parents earn. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that real income rose throughout the 1990s and then declined from 2001 to 2003. The median (half were higher and half were lower) household income in 2003 was $43,318. For married-couple families it was $62,405—down slightly from the previous year (Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Robert J. Mills, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60–226, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2004).

Single-parent families, particularly those headed by single mothers, fared worse than other households. Families with female heads-of-household and no husband present had a 2003 median income of $29,307, while male-headed households with no wife present had a median income of $41,959.

Median income varied greatly by race and ethnic group in 2003. Asians had the highest median income, at $55,262, followed by non-Hispanic whites at $47,777. The median income for Hispanics in 2003 was $32,997, while for African-Americans it was approximately $29,689.