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Show Women Head Seven Percent Of Davis Families SPECIAL TO THE CLIPPER There has been a marked change in the makeup of Davis County families in the last few years. THE PROPORTION of husband-wife families has dropped, with the result that more households are now headed by women. That has been the trend, also, al-so, in most other sections of the country. A recent Commerce Com-merce Department study in- dicates that the number of families headed by women has been rising rapidly, especially since 1970. AT THAT time there were 5.6 million such families in the United States. The number has increased by more than 1 million since then. In Davis County, in 1970, there were 1,357 families that were led by women, the census count showed. That represented represent-ed 6.2 percent of the total. IT IS estimated that this figure has grown to approximately 7.1 percent at the present time, based upon a national sampling survey conducted con-ducted by the Commerce Department. Throughout the nation as a whole, the average is 12.4 percent. per-cent. It is somewhat lower than that for the white population popula-tion but considerably higher among black people. The rapid change in household composition is attributed, at-tributed, to a large degree, to the rising rate of family dissolutions, dis-solutions, via divorce or separation. SINCE 1970, the number of women who have become heads of families because of such breakups has increased at the rate of 270,000 a year. Between 1960 and 1970, in contrast, con-trast, the increase was only a third that fast, 91,000 a year. The other major situation in which women have had to take charge was created by death of their husbands. WHICHEVER it was that led to their present status, these women had thrust upon them the responsibility of running the home, making a living and, if there were children, raising them alone. Nationally, it is brought out, 1 out of every 7 American children under the age of 18 are being raised solely by their mothers. This compares with 1 out of 12 in 1960. OF THE families in Davis County that are headed by women, the latest official tabulation shows that 1,039 of them have children under 18 and that 376 of that number have children under 6. |