Who Adopts Children More Often: Men or Women?

In the United States, men between the ages of 18 and 44 are twice as likely to adopt children than women in the same age bracket. One of the main reasons for the difference has to do with subsequent marriages that include a woman who has full custody of children from a previous marriage. It is not unusual for new husbands to adopt the new wife’s children. In addition to being more likely to adopt children, men also tend to adopt at a younger age than their female counterparts.

More facts about adoption in the United States:

• Never-married women are more likely to adopt children than never-married men. In the U.S. in 2002, about 100,000 women who had never been married became adoptive mothers, compared with about 73,000 never-married men who became adoptive fathers.


• On average, U.S. citizens adopt 50,000 foster care children annually. The adoption of foster care children accounts for less than half of the roughly 125,000 adoptions that occur each year.


• Adoptive mothers are more likely to be older than women who have given birth to at least one child but never adopted children.