The number of married couples in the United States who have children under 18 hit a 56-year low in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 2017, according to Census Bureau table FM-1, there were 23,651,000 married-couple families in this country with children under 18. The last time there were fewer than that was 1961, when there were 23,514,000.

In the years since 1950, according to Census Bureau data, the number of married couples with children under 18 peaked in 2007, when there were 26,158,000.

But the decline in the traditional family is more dramatically demonstrated by comparing the number of married-couple families with children under 18 to the full population of the country.