How many single headed households are there currently (or as recently
as possible) in the United States and in approximately how many of
them does the head of the household work?  I would like the
information broken up by race, gender, and (if possible) by some class
designation.

Eblanck --

Thanks for the great question!

Of approximately 109 million households in the U.S., the 2000 Census
says that there are this many single-parent households with children
under 18:

TOTAL: 11,725,000
Headed by father: 2,044,000
   -- fathers employed: 1,719,000 (84.1%)
Headed by mother: 9.681,000
-- mothers employed: 7,054,000 (72.9%)



BY FAMILY INCOME:
-----------------

under $10,000: 3,249,000
$10K-$15K: 1,491,000
$15K-$20K: 1,459,000
$20K-$25K: 1,121,000
$25K-$30K:    885,000
$30K-$40K: 1,312,000
$40K-$50K:    780,000
$50K-$75K:    913,000
$75K+:            515,000


BY RACE:
--------------

White: 7,838,000
Black: 3,396,000
Asian & Pacific Islanders: 286,000
Hispanics*: 1,877,000


*  note that this count exceeds the 11.7 million total because
Hispanics can be either race.

Almost all of the details that you see are in the U.S. Census report,
"America's Families and Living Arrangements," (March, 2000):
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/p20-537_00.html

The Census data in the following chart is incredibly rich, even
indicating age of children living in these households.  Table FG5,
"One-Parent Family Groups with Own Children Under 18, by Labor Force
Status, and Race, and Hispanic Origin" comes the closest to answering
all of your questions. The report comes in three formats -- a simple
web browser screen (which may be hard to print); a PDF file; and an
Excel spreadsheet.


Google search strategy:
www.census.gov + Census 2000, families

I have excluded single heads of household with children at home, which
would include unmarried singles and divorced or widowed seniors whose
children are grown.  Should you wish to have those people included,
please ask for a clarification before rating this answer.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

I got all the information I needed, quickly, and learned how to access
similar information in the future.  Thank you.