{"id":1049,"date":"2016-07-25T19:28:43","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T18:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empathygap.uk\/?p=1049"},"modified":"2016-09-07T22:15:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T21:15:09","slug":"families-divorce-cohabitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empathygap.uk\/?p=1049","title":{"rendered":"Families, Divorce, Cohabitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"marriage<\/a><\/p>\n

The Increasing Socio-Economic Marriage Gap (click to enlarge)<\/em><\/p>\n

Following the earlier post on marriage statistics, here are some bald statistics on families, divorce and cohabitation in the UK. It is primarily intended for the mhrm.uk<\/a> Wiki but I thought I’d post it here first. I also revisit the theme of the Marriage Gap because it is so important.<\/p>\n

Unless otherwise stated the data on families and households relate to the whole UK, whereas the data on divorce relate to England & Wales. Throughout “children” is used as a shorthand for “dependent children”. The ONS documents are not explicit regarding what constitutes dependency. The term “divorce” is used to include both decrees absolute and decrees of nullity.<\/p>\n

Families and Households 2015 (UK)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Data is from this ONS publication<\/a>. The following Figures and Table are self-explanatory.<\/p>\n

Table 1:\u00a0Families by family type, 1996 – 2015<\/strong> (with and without dependent children)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Thousands<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\n1996<\/strong><\/td>\n2005<\/strong><\/td>\n2015<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Married couple, with children<\/td>\n5223<\/td>\n4732<\/td>\n4704<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Married couple, without children<\/td>\n7418<\/td>\n7546<\/td>\n7760<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cohabiting couple, with children<\/td>\n540<\/td>\n902<\/td>\n1254<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cohabiting couple, without children<\/td>\n934<\/td>\n1547<\/td>\n1924<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lone parent family, with children<\/td>\n1631<\/td>\n1883<\/td>\n1963<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lone parent family, without children<\/td>\n814<\/td>\n814<\/td>\n1059<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

There are more of all types of family than 20 years ago, except for<\/em> married couples with children of which there are fewer.<\/p>\n

Figure 1:\u00a0Families by family type, 1996 – 2015\u00a0<\/strong>(with and without dependent children) – click to enlarge<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Families<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2a: Percentage of dependent children by family type, 2005 – 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Percentage<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2a shows the percentage of dependent children by family type over the ten year period 2005 – 2015.\u00a0Children living with cohabiting couples have increased as a proportion of the total number of children, at the expense of children living with married couples. The proportion of lone parent families has not changed significantly over the last 10 years (accounting for about 23% of children).<\/p>\n

However, Figure 2a does not faithfully represent the current rate of births into the different family types – because it is an integrated statistic, i.e., many of the children in question in Figure 2a will have been born some time ago when birth rates inside marriage were higher. The percentage of births within marriage is shown against year from 1980 in Figure 2b (taken from the trend away from marriage<\/a>, Harry Benson, April 2015). The births outside marriage are split into sole registrants, i.e., when a (nominal) father is not named on the birth certificate, and dual registrants, when one is (though not married). Note that many of the dual registrants will not be living together (or claiming not to be living together).<\/p>\n

Figure 2b illustrates the massive social change which has taken place over the last 36 years. In 1980 little more than 10% of children were born outside marriage, whereas by 2012 this had reached nearly 50%. This is due both to doubling the number of lone parents over this period (see Figure 7) and a huge increase in cohabitation.<\/p>\n

In fact, if it were not for women born outside the UK, the percentage of children born within marriage would already be well below 50%. Figure 2c shows that\u00a0the percentage of children born within marriage to women born within the UK was only 45% in 2014.<\/p>\n

Figure 2b: Birth rates inside and outside marriage, since 1980<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Decreasing<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2c:\u00a0Percentage of live births in England & Wales to couples within marriage\/civil partnership, by country group of birth of mother, 2014 (taken from this ONS data<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Children<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 3: Number of children by family type<\/strong>. Note that these percentages are of the total for that particular family type. Do not misinterpret this as indicating that most single-child families are single parent families. You should also take cognisance of the data being a snap-shot in time, so some of the single child families will later become families with 2 or more children.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Number<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 4: Young adults living with parents<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a><\/p>\n

A larger percentage of males live with their parents than females in every age range. (This may be due to the larger number of single males, see Marriage<\/a>). There are about a million more young adults living with their parent(s) than twenty years ago: in 1998 there were 5.5 million young adults livings with their parent(s), whilst in 2015 there were 6.6 million. This probably reflects the tendency to marry later, or not at all. Whether economics also plays a part is not clear.<\/p>\n

Figure 5: Percentage of households by household size in 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Percentage<\/a><\/p>\n

Note that 2 people may mean a single adult and one child, or two adults. In 2015 some 29% of households were people living alone (up from 17% in 1971). Again this may be partly a result of the tendency to marry later. However, the age range at which lone-living is most common is 45 – 64, suggesting that divorce, partnership breakdown or never having married are the most significant causes.<\/p>\n

Figure 6: Age of people living alone<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Age<\/a><\/p>\n

Lone Parents<\/strong><\/p>\n