Over one-quarter of all children under 21 years of age have one of their parents living outside of their household. When this occurs, it is often the legal obligation of the noncustodial parent to provide financial support to help pay for the costs associated with raising their children. This report provides an overview of these children and their custodial parents, including their socioeconomic characteristics and the types and the amount of child support received from noncustodial parents.

The most recent data in this report are from the Child Support Supplement (CSS) to the April 2018 Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS-CSS provides demographic information about custodial parents as of 2018, as well as child support and other income or program data for the 2017 calendar year. In addition to this most recent data, this report also provides historical statistics over the past 24 years by comparing data collected from the April 1994 CPS-CSS and subsequent biennial surveys.

Current Population Survey: