This Father’s Day, Social Explorer would like to focus on one type of father in particular—the single father.

In 2009, there were 2,586,549 single dad households out of the total 75,530,746 family households with children.  Single father households earned $34,676 (median income), which is little more than half what married couple family households made ($61,082), but almost one and a half times what single mother households make ($23,313).

Single father households are much rarer than single mother households.  Their distribution around the country is shown in this interactive map (click to explore).

Single Father Households (2009 American Community Survey)

The table below shows the number and percentage of single father households in the US from decade to decade.

To explore more data about dads and other groups, check out Social Explorer’s map and report tools (data also makes a great Father’s Day gift–better than another tie).