Southern States Had Higher Than Average Share of Adults Age 30 and Over Who Lived With Grandchildren in 2021
About 6.7 million people or 3.3% of adults age 30 and over lived with their grandchildren in 2021, according to a recently released U.S. Census Bureau report on the characteristics and geography of grandparents living with grandchildren under the age of 18 in the United States.
Alaska, Hawaii and states in the Southeast and Southwest had a higher share of grandparent-grandchildren households than the national average while states in the Northeast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest had lower shares.
Nationally, roughly 32.7% of grandparents living with their grandchildren under the age of 18 were responsible for their care.
Grandparents have long served critical roles in U.S. families that are shaped by changing demographic trends, such as increasing life expectancy, which allows grandparents more years to develop relationships with grandchildren.
Cultural expectations of the role of grandparents also contribute to differences in living arrangements.
States With Highest Share of Grandparents Living with Grandchildren
Using 2017-2021 American Community Survey, 5-year estimates, Figure 1 shows the percentage of the population age 30 and over who lived with grandchildren under the age of 18 and whether the estimate for each state differed significantly from the national average.
The county-level map (Figure 2) offers an even more granular look at how these estimates vary. Some states, such as Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont had zero counties with percentages higher than the national average.
The geographic patterns reflect the demographics and cultural characteristics of people who live in those areas.
The South, for example, has a higher percentage of Black or African American populations in the region who have a relatively high rate of living with grandchildren.
Lower percentages in the Northeast and Midwest could reflect higher percentages of non-Hispanic White populations, who have among the lowest percentage of grandparents living with grandchildren.
The high percentages of grandparents living with grandchildren throughout Alaska and Hawaii reflect the higher percentages of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations, respectively. Both groups (AIAN and NHPI) have among the highest percentages living with grandchildren.
Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren
Nationally, roughly 32.7% of grandparents living with their grandchildren under the age of 18 were responsible for their care (Figure 3).
With the exception of the District of Columbia, Florida and Maryland, states in the South had higher percentages than the national average while states on the West Coast tended to have lower percentages. Alaska was higher and Hawaii was lower than the national average.
Arizona, Colorado, the District of Columbia and Michigan were the only states or state equivalents with estimates that were not significantly different from the national average.
Figure 4 shows county-level geographic variation. Some states, such as Hawaii, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Utah, had zero counties with percentages higher than the national average. On the other end of the spectrum, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming did not have a single county lower than the national average.
Several states had a higher share of the population 30 years and over living with grandchildren (Figure 1) than the national average but a lower share of those living with grandchildren who were responsible for their grandchildren (Figure 3).
For example, the share of grandparents living with grandchildren exceeded the national average in California, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada and Utah (Figure 1), but the share of those responsible for their grandchildren’s care was lower than the national average in those states (Figure 3).
The opposite was true in 16 states: Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. In those states, the percentage of grandparents living with grandchildren was lower than the nation as a whole but the share of those responsible for the care of their grandchildren was higher.