For every odd integer n ≥ 3, we prove that there exist infinitely many number fields of degree n and associated Galois group S n whose class number is odd. To do so, we study the class groups of families of number fields of degree n whose rings of integers arise as the coordinate rings of the subschemes of P 1 cut out by integral binary n-ic forms. By obtaining upper bounds on the mean number of 2-torsion elements in the class groups of fields in these families, we prove that a positive proportion (tending to 1 as n tends to ∞) of such fields have trivial 2-torsion subgroup in their class groups and narrow class groups. Conditional on a tail estimate, we also prove the corresponding lower bounds and obtain the exact values of these averages, which are consistent with the heuristics of Cohen-Lenstra-Martinet-Malle and Dummit-Voight.Additionally, for any order O f of degree n arising from an integral binary n-ic form f , we compare the sizes of Cl 2 (O f ), the 2-torsion subgroup of ideal classes in O f , and I 2 (O f ), the 2-torsion subgroup of ideals in O f . For the family of orders arising from integral binary n-ic forms and contained in fields with fixed signature (r 1 , r 2 ), we prove that the mean value of the difference |Cl 2 (O f )| − 2 1−r1−r2 |I 2 (O f )| is equal to 1, generalizing a result of Bhargava and the third-named author for cubic fields. Conditional on certain tail estimates, we also prove that the mean value of |Cl 2 (O f )| − 2 1−r1−r2 |I 2 (O f )| remains 1 for certain families obtained by imposing local splitting and maximality conditions.There is a height ordering on R H arising from the height ordering H on Sym n (Z 2 ), where H(f ) is defined as the maximum absolute value of the coefficients of f . Note that although two rings in R H may be isomorphic, their heights need not be equal. For example, if γ ∈ SL 2 (Z), and we define the action γf (x, y) := f ((x, y)γ) on the space of integral binary n-ic forms, then it is always true thatSuch orbits [f ] may be ordered by their Julia invariant, which is an invariant defined in [27] for the action of SL 2 (Z) on Sym n (Z 2 ) (see §3.3 for details). Thus, we also define the family R J to be the multiset of ringsordered by Julia invariant J, where J(R [f ] ) := J([f ]). Asymptotics on the size of R J were obtained by Bhargava-Yang [13].In this paper, we compute averages taken over certain families contained in R H or R J . Let R r 1 ,r 2 H ⊂ R H and R r 1 ,r 2 J ⊂ R J be the respective subfamilies consisting of all Gorenstein 1 integral domains whose fraction field has signature (r 1 , r 2 ), i.e., has r 1 real embeddings and r 2 pairs of conjugate complex embeddings. Also, let R r 1 ,r 2 H,max ⊂ R r 1 ,r 2 H (resp. R r 1 ,r 2 J,max ⊂ R r 1 ,r 2 J ) be the subfamily containing all maximal orders. It is worthwhile to note that a given order O in a number field with signature (r 1 , r 2 ) may occur in R r 1 ,r 2 H or R r 1 ,r 2 H,max an infinite number of times (up to isomorphism) but only occurs with finite multiplicity in R r 1 ,r 2 J or R r 1...