[Press Release] New Report Estimates $154 Billion in Annual Taxpayer Costs Linked to Father Absence

 New Report Estimates $154 Billion in Annual Taxpayer Costs Linked to Father Absence  
 Updated analysis shows federal spending on assistance programs for single mother-headed households increased over 50% since 2006; highlights opportunity to reduce child poverty by investing in fathers and families.

GERMANTOWN, Md. — Jan. 29, 2026 — The United States spent $154.2 billion in 2018 on 14 major federal government assistance programs supporting children and mothers in households without resident fathers, according to a national report released today.

The $154 Billion Man: The Economic Argument for Investing in Fathers, authored by National Fatherhood Initiative® and the Center for Policy Research, compares federal expenditures from 2006 and 2018. The analysis draws on federal budget data and the Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate spending associated with single mother-headed (father-absent) households. It serves as an update to NFI’s landmark 2006 study, The $100 Billion Man.

Researchers found that, when controlling for inflation, spending on the 14 programs increased by 54.5%, rising from nearly $100 billion in 2006 to $154.2 billion in 2018. The $154.2 billion accounted for about 42% of the programs' combined budgets and nearly 4% of the total federal budget that year. Separated, divorced, widowed, and never-married mothers all receive a variety of food, tax, and medical benefits from government programs which help to mitigate child poverty and other negative effects of father absence.

“Supporting homes without resident fathers has enormous economic and social costs,” said Christopher Brown, President of National Fatherhood Initiative®. “The $154 Billion Man report reinforces the need for proactive, sustained investment in fatherhood initiatives and policies — in addition to government assistance programs — that engage fathers and increase their economic capacity and involvement in their children’s lives.”

Today, more than 18 million American children live in homes without a resident father. Positive father involvement is associated with better outcomes on nearly every measure of child well-being.

“While some nonresident fathers are involved in their children’s lives, many are not,” continued Brown. “Those that are involved can struggle to support their children adequately and are less likely to be involved as their children age. Greater investments in fathers will help reduce the reliance of low-income families on public supports and increase the proportion of children who benefit from growing up with capable and involved fathers.”

The full report is available here: http://fatherhood.org/154-Billion-Report

Key findings and recommendations from The $154 Billion Man Report

• Program expenditures reviewed in the study account for 30.8% of the estimated $500 billion the federal government spends annually to reduce childhood poverty. The total cost of poverty and supporting single mother-headed households is far higher.
• Single mother-headed households are more likely to experience poverty, with 23.3% living at or below the poverty line, compared to 6.9% of married-couple households, resulting in higher participation in government assistance programs.
• The declining marriage rate and soaring nonmarital birth rates are two drivers of father absence. Children born to cohabiting parents experience a risk of parental separation at five times the rate experienced by children born to married parents.
• Preventive policy and research measures implemented at the state and federal levels may help to strengthen fathers’ economic capacity and reduce the need for government assistance programs. Such measures include:
  • Reducing the financial stress of raising children through paid family leave, affordable childcare, housing affordability measures, and family-friendly tax credits.
  • Strengthening the economic position of low-income fathers through higher wages, workforce training, education, reentry employment opportunities, and expanded Earned Income Tax Credits for nonresident fathers.
  • Addressing persistent labor market inequities faced by fathers of color.
  • Expanding and stabilizing support for evidence-based fatherhood, coparenting, and relationship education programs.
  • Improving data collection and research to tailor family-strengthening programs and maximize their impact.

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About National Fatherhood Initiative®

National Fatherhood Initiative® (NFI) was founded in 1994 to reverse our nation’s destructive trend toward father absence. Today, more than 18 million American children, or 1 in 4, live in homes without a biological, step, or adoptive father. Yet, the fact remains that millions of families interact with human-service organizations every year that are primarily mother-focused. Therefore, NFI’s mission is to increase father involvement by equipping human service organizations and communities with the father engagement training, programs, and resources they need to be father inclusive. Our vision is that all human service organizations and communities are proactively father-inclusive so that every child has an involved, responsible, and committed father.

Accordingly, we accomplish our mission by:

• Educating all Americans, especially fathers, through social media, earned media, research, and free resources.
• Equipping organizations and communities with fatherhood programs and resources through training, planning, and technical assistance services.
• Engaging and assisting organizations and communities in mobilizing at the micro- and macro-level to increase fathers' involvement in children’s lives. 

For more information on NFI, visit www.fatherhood.org.

About Center for Policy Research

The Center for Policy Research (CPR) is a Colorado nonprofit organization that was created in 1981 to assess public programs and policies that aim to improve the social and economic wellbeing of low-income individuals, children, and families. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods and input from the populations that are impacted, CPR tries to determine how various social programs and policies work, whether they meet their objectives, and how they might be improved. CPR’s research over the past 45 years has led to changes at national and state levels. During its early years, CPR was a leader in researching the benefits of mediation and other non-adversarial forms of dispute resolution in child custody and divorce proceedings and in child welfare programs. In the child support arena, CPR has conducted demonstration and evaluation programs with more than 25 states on innovative approaches to improve payment behavior including right-sizing child support orders, reducing child support debt accumulated during incarceration, making the delivery of child support services safer for survivors of domestic violence, and providing employment assistance to unemployed non-custodial parents. CPR has also done pioneering research and evaluation on responsible fatherhood, parenting-time interventions and positive father-child engagement. CPR co-created and currently directs the Fatherhood Research and Practice Network www.frpn.org which aims to highlight state-level programs and policies that support low-income fathers. CPR is committed to advancing opportunity, equality and well-being throughout society. For more information on CPR, visit www.centerforpolicyresearch.org.

Media Contacts

Maggie Spain, Spearca Communications, 405-812-0685, maggie@spearcadenver.com

Christopher Brown, National Fatherhood Initiative®, 240-912-1260, cbrown@fatherhood.org