Facts and Figures: The Statistics Behind Child Support in the United States

To better understand child support payments and the impact they have on the lives of people in the United States, it’s important to take a look at the statistics outlining how many people have to make payments, how much those payments are, and how many people actually make them.

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report in December 2011 that outlined the extent of child support agreements in the United States. The report, called Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2009 includes the following data:

There are 13.7 million custodial parents in the United States.
As of 2009, just over 50 percent of those custodial parents had a child support agreement in place.
Of those child support agreements, 90 percent were formal agreements ordered in a court of law or by a government agency.
Under 10 percent of child support agreements were informally established between the two parents.
As of 2010, over a quarter of all the custodial parents in the United States – 26.8 percent in all – had gone to the government for assistance in collecting child support.
Just under 55 percent of custodial single mothers were granted child support payments by the courts.
By contrast, 30.4 percent of custodial single fathers were awarded payments.

As any child support lawyer in New Jersey will tell you, for many the most important data regarding child support is the data concerning money. When it comes to dollars and cents, the Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2009 report outlines some illuminating numbers.

As of 2009, some $35.1 billion was owed in child support annually.
For non-custodial parents mandated to pay child support, the average amount due was $5,960 annually.
Of the $5,960 owed each year, only 60.9 percent of that money, or $3,630, was actually received by the custodial parent.
Based on the numbers above, custodial parents receive about $300 per month in child support payments.

Despite these agreements being in place, most non-custodial parents who were ordered to pay child support failed to make full payments, and nearly 30 percent of them did not make payments at all. According to the Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2009 report, some of those details include:

Among custodial single parents in the United States in 2009, 6.9 million of them in all, just over 41 percent of them got all the child support money they were due.
Among those 6.9 million custodial single parents, just under 30 percent of them received at least some of the money they were due.
Just under 30 percent of those custodial parents did not receive any child support money at all, despite court orders mandating its payment.
Child support is not always cash-based: of the 6.9 million custodial parents in the U.S. in 2009, just over 60 percent of them received some kind of non-cash support.

For more detailed information on child support payments in New Jersey and what they mean for you, consult a New Jersey child support attorney.