acs_microdata_marriage_deserts

PUMA-level Visualizations of Marriage and Family Formation Data Within 2023 ACS5

This site shows maps and tables, at the PUMA* level, of two different metrics:

The % of adults ages 15-64 who are married.
The % of children under 18 who are being raised by a married couple. (Children who have one married parent at home and another living elsewhere, e.g. due to military service or work, are also counted within this group. Children who are already married were excluded from this analysis.)

These visualizations were created as a means of checking the findings within our main Marriage Deserts site. That site’s visualizations use the 2020 Decennial Census rather than the 2023 ACS5; in addition, they show household-level rather than individual-level statistics. As a result, the two sets of maps do not match exactly; however, many similar patterns are present in both.

*PUMA is an abbreviation for Public Use Microdata Area.

Categorical maps

These maps group regions into four different categories: Deserts, Lower share areas, Higher share areas, and Gardens.

% of adults ages 15-64, by PUMA, who are married

% of children, by PUMA, in a married-couple family

Grouped maps and tables

To create these visualizations, we grouped together contiguous regions in the same category, then determined which areas had the highest relevant populations (i.e. adults aged 15-64 in the case of the marriage maps and unmarried children in the case of the married-family maps).

Grouped marriage maps/tables

(Note: the population values shown within these maps and tables represent the number of adults ages 15-64 rather than the total population.)

Map of the top 10 grouped PUMA-level deserts and gardens

Map of all grouped PUMA-level deserts and gardens

Table of the top 100 grouped PUMA-level deserts

Table of the top 100 grouped PUMA-level gardens

Grouped married-family maps/tables

(Note: the population values shown within these maps and tables represent the number of unmarried children in each group rather than the total population.)

Map of the top 10 grouped PUMA-level deserts and gardens

Map of all grouped PUMA-level deserts and gardens

Table of the top 100 grouped PUMA-level deserts

Gradient maps

% of adults ages 15-64, by PUMA, who are married

For comparison: % of householders ages 15-64 in the 2020 Decennial Census, by PUMA, who are married

% of children, by PUMA, in a married-couple family

For comparison: % of households with children in the 2020 Decennial Census, that are led by a married couple

Data tables

% of adults ages 15-64, by PUMA, who are married

% of children, by PUMA, in a married-couple family

Comparisons of these individual-level percentages/percentiles with the 2020 Census-based ones that we calculated earlier

The following visualizations illustrate the differences in percentages/percentiles between household-level metrics (calculated using 2020 Census data) and individual-level ones (calculated via ACS microdata).

Maps

Differences in household- and adult-level marriage prevalence

Differences in household- and adult-level marriage percentiles

Differences in household- and child-level married-family prevalence

Differences in household- and child-level married-family percentiles

Scatter plots

Comparison of household- and adult-level marriage prevalence

Comparison of household- and adult-level marriage percentiles

Comparison of household- and child-level married-family prevalence

Comparison of household- and child-level married-family percentiles

Heatmaps

*Note: the percentages displayed in these heatmaps reflect the percentage of PUMAs in each household-level category that are in each corresponding individual-level category. Thus, each column sums to 100% (excluding rounding-related distortions).

Comparison of household- and adult-level marriage categories

Comparison of household- and child-level married-family categories

Overall %s:

78.5% of PUMAs are in the same household- and adult-level marriage categories.

80.1% of PUMAs are in the same household- and child-level married-family categories.

Author:

Institute for Family Studies