Happy Father’s Day on Sunday to the more than 70.1 million fathers in America.
According to the U.S. Census, 24.7 million fathers were part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2014. Wonderfully, nearly 93 percent of dads with kids younger than 18 were employed in 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But according to WalletHub, in some states where economic opportunity abounds and quality of life is emphasized, dads have the best of worlds.
If you guessed that Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama were not in the top 10, you were right.
Tennessee ranks 19th. Georgia is 40th, and Alabama comes in at No. 44.
Nationally, 21 percent of married dads had three or more children younger than 18 in the household, and 3 percent were living in someone else’s home with their families, according to a census report called America’s Families and Living Arrangements.
There were 1.9 million single fathers in 2014, and they made up 16 percent of single parents. Of them, 9 percent had three or more children younger than 18 in the household. About 43.5 percent were divorced, 33 percent were never married, 18.8 percent were separated and 4.7 percent were widowed.
Another interesting census number about dads is 211,000. That was the estimated number of stay-at-home dads in 2014. These married fathers with children younger than 15 remained out of the labor force for at least one year primarily so they could care for the family while their wives worked outside the home. These fathers cared for about 420,000 children.
Another census report about child support found that custodial fathers in 2011 received about $2 billion. They were due $3.7 billion. (Custodial mothers received $19.5 billion of the $31.7 billion owed them.)
Those “hard numbers” of Father’s Day, however, tell only one part of the story.
Dads double as our children’s coaches, teachers, mentors, bodyguards, best friends – sometimes even companions in mischief. They may at times be hard to corral and occasionally grumpy, but they still are some of our best listeners, advisers and pals.
Give yours some attention Sunday.