How many stay-at-home fathers are there in the United States?
Data from the 2007 Census suggests there are 165,000 stay-at-home fathers in the United States. Most likely, this is a gross underestimate of the number of men in these roles. Among other restrictions, the census data excludes guys who have worked in the past few years, are currently employed, or considering returning to work. Yet what the census data does accurately reflect is the growing number of SAHFs. For example, in 2003, there were an estimated 98,000 SAHFs. This reflects a 64% increase in just 4 years. There are also different ways of looking at the data provided by the census. A 2008 census-sponsored press release suggests there are 11.3 million children (under the age of 5) whose mothers are employed on a full-time basis. Twenty-five percent of these kids (2.8 million children) were cared for by their fathers. Having looked at these numbers in different ways, I would realistically estimate about 2 million men who would consider themselves SAHFs. To review a further commentary
