Stacker reports that 1 in 70 people in Chattooga County, Georgia are grandparents caring for grandchildren More than 2.2 million people in the U.S. identify as grandparents caring for grandchildren under 18 years old, according to Stacker’s analysis of Census data. Grandfamily arrangements are more common in counties with smaller populations. Children in these nontraditional arrangements also tend to live in households with lower incomes and depend more heavily on assistance programs for food and other resources.

About 3% of children were being raised in kinship care settings in the U.S. in 2022, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center. According to a report published this year in collaboration with the foundation, grandfamilies and kinship care arrangements are becoming more prevalent.The report found that states are making strides in creating new policies to support these families, but that more can be done to increase federal funding and more rapidly implement standards that make placing foster children with relatives as caregivers less of a hassle.

According to the report, there has been a 34% increase in the number of grandparents caring for grandchildren in Chattooga County.