*The share of mothers who do not work outside the home rose to 29% in 2012, up from a modern-era low of 23% in 1999.
*A growing share of stay-at-home mothers (6% in 2012, compared with 1% in 2000) say they are home with their children because they cannot find a job.
At least that pays more than childcare.
*41% of single stay-at-home mothers and 64% of cohabiting mothers give family care as their primary reason for being home, according to census data. They are more likely than married stay-at-home mothers to say they are ill or disabled, unable to find a job, or enrolled in school.
*Stay-at-home mothers are less likely than working mothers to be white (51% are white, compared with 60% of working mothers) and more likely to be immigrants (33% vs. 20%).
*Fully a third (34%) of stay-at-home mothers are living in poverty, compared with 12% of working mothers.
*Stay-at-home mothers who are married with working husbands generally are better off financially than the other groups. They are more highly educated, and relatively few are in poverty (15%), compared with a majority of other stay-at-home mothers.
*Among all mothers, the share who are stay-at-home mothers with working husbands fell to 20% in 2012 from 40% in 1970.
*Among all stay-at-home mothers, those who are married with working husbands make up the largest share (68% in 2012), but that has declined significantly from 1970, when it was 85%.
*As marriage rates have declined among U.S. adults, a growing share of stay-at-home mothers consists of single mothers (20% in 2012, compared with 8% in 1970). About 5% are cohabiting mothers, and 7% are married mothers whose husbands do not work.
*One-in-five U.S. children today are living in a household with a married stay-at-home mother and her working husband. In 1970, 41% of children lived in this type of household.