Grandparents Day was the brainchild of Marian McQuade of Fayette County, W.Va., who hoped to persuade grandchildren to tap the wisdom and heritage of their grandparents. The first presidential proclamation was issued in 1978, and one has been issued each year since then designating the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day.

Caregivers

5.7 million
Number of grandparents who live with any of their grandchildren under 18. Most of these grandparents (4.5 million) maintain their own household.

2.4 million
Number of grandparents responsible for most of the basic needs (i.e., food, shelter, clothing) of one or more of the grandchildren they live with. These grandparents represent 43 percent of all grandparents who live with their grandchildren. Of these caregivers, 1.5 million are grandmothers and 900,000, grandfathers.

900,000
Number of grandparents responsible for most of the basic needs of their grandchildren for at least five years.

1.4 million
Number of grandparents who are in the labor force and simultaneously responsible for most of the basic needs of their grandchildren.

Multigenerational families

3.9 million
Number of multigenerational family households in the United States; these are families where grandparents live under the same roof with two or more generations of descendants. They represent 4 percent of all households.

65
Percentage of multigenerational households in which the grandparent is the householder and lives with their children and their grandchildren. There are 2.6 million of these households.

33
Percentage of multigenerational households in which the grandparent lives in the home of their children (or son- or daughter-in-law) along with their children's children. These households number 1.3 million.

2
Percentage of multigenerational households (78,000) that include both grandparents and great-grandparents, as well as children and grandchildren of the grandparents. The great-grandparents could include parents-in-law of the grandparents.

8.2
Percentage of households in Hawaii that are of the multigenerational family type. Hawaii leads the nation. California (5.6 percent) and Mississippi (5.2 percent) are the only other states that exceed 5 percent in this type of household.

1.1
Percentage of households in North Dakota made up of multigenerational families, smallest of any state in the nation. The other states with less than 2 percent are Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Grandchildren

5.6 million
Number of children living with a grandparent; these children comprise 8 percent of all children in the United States. Of these children, 3.7 million lived in their grandparent's home and 1.8 million in their parent's.

21
Percentage of preschoolers who are cared for primarily by their grandparents while their mother is employed or in school.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

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