More children being raised by grandparents

From 2000 to 2008, the number of grandparents serving as primary caregivers for their grandchildren increased eight percent with more than half of that increase taking place between 2007 and 2008.

Other key findings include: Overall, four percent of children in the U.S. are being primarily raised by a grandparent. This number is three percent for whites, eight percent for blacks, four percent for Hispanics and two percent for Asians.

Almost half (49 percent) of children being raised by grandparents also live with a single parent. Some 43 percent of these children have no parent in the household and 8 percent have both parents in the household.

While blacks and Hispanics have the highest rates of grandparents as caregivers, the most rapid increase has been among whites. From 2000-2008, this number rose 19 percent and almost half of that increase occurred from 2007 to 2008.

For the most part, grandparent caregivers have limited financial resources. Nearly one-infive live below the poverty line, while 47 percent have household incomes that fall between one and three times the poverty line.

The majority of grandparent caregivers are young with 64 percent under the age of 60.

Among those ages 65 and older with grandchildren, 39 percent say they have helped their adult children with childcare in the past 12 months.

Results for this survey are based on telephone interviews conducted February 23-March 23, 2009 on landline and cell phones with a nationally representative sample of 2,969 adults including 1,332 with adults 65 and older. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points for the overall results and plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for data pertaining to respondents ages 65 and older. Interviews were done in English and Spanish by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

The Social & Demographic Trends project is part of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, non- advocacy research organization based in Washington, D.C., and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.