The Grandparents Raising the Kids: 2 Million Are Responsible for Their Grandchildren (2024)
Half have done it for five years or more, more than half still hold a job, and 18% live in poverty. The grandfamilies behind the phrase, counted from Census microdata.
Key findings
- In 2024 1-Year, about 6,579,578 grandparents lived in a home with their own grandchildren, and 2,022,763 of them (±36,839) reported being responsible for those grandchildren, roughly 30.7% of the grandparents who live with them.
- This is not a brief arrangement: 1,005,082, about 49.7%, have been responsible for their grandchildren for five years or more.
- More than half are still working: 51.8% of responsible grandparents (1,047,071) are in the labor force, and 54.3% are 60 or older. Their median age is 61.
- Caregiving and hardship overlap: 18.2% of responsible grandparents live below the federal poverty line.
- By count they concentrate in the largest states: Texas, California, Florida lead.
This counts grandparents who are responsible for their own grandchildren, using the 2024 1-Year American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample. The Census asks people who live with their grandchildren (GCL) whether they are responsible for them (GCR) and for how long (GCM); the universe here is co-residing grandparents, and "responsible" is their own report of having primary responsibility. Estimates are weighted with the person weight (PWGTP) and carry 90% margins of error from the 80 replicate weights. The length-of-responsibility, labor-force, age, poverty, and median-age figures are point estimates of the weighted distribution. Poverty is an income-to-poverty ratio below 100 (POVPIP).
Grandparents responsible for grandchildren, 2024 1-Year
From living with the grandchildren to raising them
| Category | Grandparents |
|---|---|
| Live with grandchildren | 6,579,578 |
| Responsible for them | 2,022,763 |
| Responsible 5+ years | 1,005,082 |
| Responsible and still working | 1,047,071 |
The first bar is the universe; the others are point estimates within it.
Where responsible grandparents concentrate
| Grandparents responsible for grandchildren | Grandparents responsible for grandchildren |
|---|---|
| Texas | 237,483 |
| California | 197,091 |
| Florida | 133,000 |
| New York | 87,618 |
| Georgia | 77,192 |
| North Carolina | 74,768 |
| Ohio | 73,045 |
| Tennessee | 67,886 |
| Pennsylvania | 64,220 |
| Illinois | 59,902 |
| Michigan | 55,453 |
| Virginia | 52,111 |
Bars are point estimates; the table lists margins of error and the share of each state’s co-residing grandparents.
Leading states
| State | Responsible grandparents | Share of co-residing | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 237,483 ± 11,877 | 33.5% | 2,345 |
| California | 197,091 ± 11,575 | 19.2% | 1,986 |
| Florida | 133,000 ± 9,384 | 27.4% | 1,172 |
| New York | 87,618 ± 6,532 | 23.0% | 968 |
| Georgia | 77,192 ± 7,344 | 31.2% | 857 |
| North Carolina | 74,768 ± 6,916 | 38.2% | 806 |
| Ohio | 73,045 ± 6,384 | 39.4% | 760 |
| Tennessee | 67,886 ± 7,017 | 44.4% | 660 |
| Pennsylvania | 64,220 ± 6,384 | 32.5% | 672 |
| Illinois | 59,902 ± 5,505 | 27.9% | 642 |
| Michigan | 55,453 ± 4,631 | 35.8% | 555 |
| Virginia | 52,111 ± 5,009 | 31.6% | 494 |
Margins of error are at the 90% confidence level, from 80 replicate weights. Sample is the unweighted number of such grandparents surveyed in each state.
Data Sources & Methodology
The figures on this page are computed directly from the source data below. Narrative text accompanies the figures but never generates them.
American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS)
- Publisher:
- U.S. Census Bureau
- Vintage:
- 2024 1-Year
- Access:
- BigQuery
- Cadence:
- annual
De-identified individual person and housing records from the American Community Survey, the Census Bureau’s largest household survey. The 1-year PUMS file lets analysts compute custom estimates for demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics down to the Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) level.
The ACS is a continuous survey that samples households throughout the year. The 2024 1-year PUMS file is a sample of de-identified person and housing records collected over calendar year 2024, representing the resident population of the United States.
Every record carries a sampling weight (PWGTP for persons, WGTP for housing units) that expands the sample to population and housing-unit totals. All statistics on this page are weighted estimates; any unweighted record counts are shown only to convey sample size.
Margins of error are computed from the 80 replicate weights supplied with the PUMS file using the Census Bureau’s successive-difference replication method, and are reported at the 90% confidence level unless stated otherwise.
Sub-state estimates use Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs), statistical areas of at least 100,000 residents. The 2020-vintage PUMA boundaries apply to 2022 and later ACS data.
- PUMS is a sample of roughly one percent of the population, so every estimate carries sampling error; small subgroups and small geographies have wider margins of error.
- Figures are survey estimates, not a complete count, and can differ from administrative records or the full ACS tabulations.
- Dollar amounts reflect the survey year and are not adjusted for inflation across vintages unless explicitly noted.
- PUMA boundaries are redrawn after each decennial census, which breaks strict geographic comparability across the boundary change.
How these figures were produced
- Estimate type:
- Weighted survey estimate (person level)
- Weighting:
- PWGTP (person weight)
- Confidence level:
- 90%
- Error estimation:
- Successive-difference replication over 80 replicate weights
Suggested citation
U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 1-Year American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). Analysis by Matt George, itsmattgeorge.com. Retrieved 2026-10-15.