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Those racial numbers are correct, but might be misleading if not looked at in the context of the population size of each race. It's an issue that cuts across all races though: a quarter of white children, a quarter of hispanic children, and nearly 3 quarters of black children are currently born to single mothers.

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If you control for income, though, out-of-wedlock birth rates for black and white mothers are now very similar, though. “Our Kids” by Robert Putnam is a good summary.

Is this cause or effect? Unmarried motherhood has a very high correlation with poverty but I always assumed that poverty was the effect, not the cause.

Tax and benefits wise it is usually a mistake to get married and if you are already near the survival minimum it can be a horrible mistake.

I suspect it's a both/and situation, depending on the situation.

Yep, it's a very serious issue with no easy answers.

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