The American nuclear family is not very typical, according to an analysis of 1990 census data by the Center for the Study of Social Policy.
The most common type of household in the United States is a married couple without children:
There are 27.5 million of these.
In second place (at 26.9 million) are non-family households of unrelated individuals.
In third place are the 24.2 million households with parents and children.
Only one in four American children live in a two-parent family where one parent works and the other stays home.