This report presents statistics on women who are heads of their own families in the United States. The focus of the report is on trends in female family headship between 1960 and 1973. Data are presented on the social and economic characteristics of these women and, in general, on the conditions in which they and the members of their families live.

Detailed tables provide data on: Female family heads as a proportion of all families; size of families with female heads; families with female heads by number of own children; children in families by presence of parents; years of school completed by female heads; mobility of husband-wife families and families with female heads; median income of families; source of income for families; work experience of female family heads; major occupation group of employed female heads; percent of persons below the low-income level in families with female head; gross rent-income ratio for families with female heads in renter occupied units; female primary individuals as a proportion of all household heads; characteristics of female primary individuals; and selected characteristics of subfamilies headed by a female. The data are cross-classified by one or more of the following: Race and Spanish origin, sex, age, metropolitan-nonmetropolitan residence; type of family, labor force status of mother, marital and family status, and tenure of family.