Big Drop in Number of Families Headed by a Married Couple

The British Government has issued a report stating that the number of families headed by a married couple in Britain has fallen by as much as half a million within just the last decade.

The Focus on Families Report, which is put together by the Office for National Statistics, found that only 10 million families, out of a total of 17 million, were headed by a couple. The remaining 7 million families are led by single parents or unmarried couples.

According to the Report, 12 millions families in Britain still included a married mother and father, a half million drop from 1996.

The Report also revealed that there are nearly four times as many people living alone than in 1961, signalling a clear move away from the traditional "nuclear family" of one mother, father and 2.4 children.

In stark contrast to this model, the average British family has 2.4 members in total, in comparison to 3.1 per cent in 1961. This development has been attributed to Britain’s ageing population and more people choosing to remain single.

Compared with one in 14 in 1972, one in four children are now part of a single-parent family, with 10 per cent of all families being stepfamilies.

The age of the average married couple is also rising, with only one in 10 married couples including at least one partner below the age of 35. More than half of all unmarried couples include at least one partner in the under-35 age category.

The report also found that more lone parents and mothers are working. The number of single parents working has seen a 12 percent increase between 1994 and 2004, from 42 per cent to fifty four per cent, while the number of households in which both parents work has risen from 60 per cent in 1994 to 68 per cent.