Washington ? Nearly 10.6 million children were being raised by full-time stay-at-home moms last year, up 13 percent in a little less than a decade.

Experts credit the economic boom, the cultural influence of America’s growing Hispanic population and the entry into parenthood of a generation of latchkey kids.

Of the 41.8 million children under 15 who lived with two parents last year, more than 25 percent had mothers who did not work and stayed home, according to a Census Bureau report.

That was up from 23 percent, or 9.4 million children, in such situations in 1994, a bureau analyst said.

Full-time stay-at-home dads took care of 189,000 children in 2002, up 18 percent.

Heather Stergos, 29, of St. Louis, quit her job as a child-care worker six months ago so she could stay home full time with her newborn. She brought her infant son to work with her for four months before deciding she wanted to spend more time with him.

While her family’s budget is a little tighter, Stergos said she was happy with the decision and planned to stay home until son Charlie is in grade school.

“I got a lot more negative responses from friends, though my family was very supportive,” Stergos said Monday.

Both she and her husband were raised by stay-at-home moms. “It was more beneficial than having someone else take care of your kids,” she said.

High birth rates and increased immigration helped the Hispanic population more than double in the United States during the 1990s. That may have also influenced the trend, as some Latino cultures place more emphasis on women staying home to raise children, O’Hare said.

Many younger women who now have children grew up when placing a child in day care was the norm, said Susan De Ritis, spokeswoman for the Fairfax, Va.-based Family and Home Network, which represents stay-at-home parents.

“Now they don’t want their kids to become day care children,” she said. “Their mom may not have been home when they got home from school, so perhaps they want something different for their family.”