An increasing number of Black children are being raised in two-parent homes, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau show.

In fact, according to the report, there are more African-American children being raised by two parents that at any other time in a generation.

Experts aren’t quite sure what to attribute the trend to, but many speculate that it could be due to the influx of Black immigrant populations or the rise in the Black middle class and the values associated with those demographics.

While the number of Black children living with two parents was 59 percent in 1970, it dipped to 42 percent 10 years later. By 1990, the number declined to 38 percent; it was a dismal 35 percent in 2004. But in 2007, the latest year for which data are available, the percentage rose to 40 percent. “

It’s a positive change,” Prof. Robert J. Sampson, the chairman of Harvard’s Sociology Department, told The Associated Press. “It’s been hidden.”

The question now, demographers say, is whether that recent positive trend might be undercut by current economic woes, which most negatively impact the middle class. 

The Census Bureau warns, however, that an indeterminate amount of the increase could be attributed to a change in the definition of a two-parent home to include any man and woman living together, whether or not they are married or are the child’s biological parents, AP notes.