Happy to live in sin: Number of unmarried couples who move in together doubles in 16 years (UK)

A collapse in support for marriage has seen the number of cohabiting couples double in less than two decades. Since 1996, the number of children growing up with unmarried parents has also doubled while the number of couples who have tied the knot has dropped by 457,000. Ministers have made tackling family breakdown and supporting parents a policy priority in trying to reduce worklessness and deprivation.

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Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of cohabiting couples has almost doubled since 1996

 

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith yesterday unveiled plans to track children growing up without both birth parents at home and whether couples think they have a ‘good quality relationship’. New figures published today reveal the extent to which the tradition of marriage has disappeared from millions of homes. The number of homes where men and women live together but have not got hitched has soared from 1.5million in 1996 to 2.9 million in 2012.  The number of families with children where the couple is unmarried has also doubled from 0.9million to 1.8 million, according to the Office for National Statistics. The decline in the number of couples who choose to tie the knot, which began in the 1970s, continues. Today there are 12.2 million married couples in the UK, down by 457,000 since 1996.

LONELY BRITAIN: THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE ALONE

Almost one in three households are people living alone, new figures show.

The Office for National Statistics said that of the 26.4 million households in the UK in 2012. Of these, 29 per cent have only one person living there.

In total, 7.6million people now live on their own.

Three in five (4.2million) are aged 16 to 64, and almost 60 per cent of this age group are men.

But among the over-65s the pattern is reverse, where the majority of people living alone (69 per cent) are women.

Lone parents now make up one in four families with children. There are now almost 2million lone parents in the UK, up from 1.6million in 1996. Of the 18.2million families in the UK, the majority (7.6million) are couples who have got married or entered a civil partnership. A total of 4.6million families have children where the couple has tied the knot.

Mr Duncan Smith yesterday said private companies would be paid to support families and stop them from breaking up. Calling family ‘the most important building block in a child’s life’, Mr Duncan Smith made clear the Government will prioritise keeping families together. In a speech yesterday at a Social Justice Conference in London, he said: ‘Stable, loving families matter. They matter for this government, and they matter for the most vulnerable in society. ‘By measuring the proportion of children living with the same parents from birth and whether their parents report a good quality relationship we are driving home the message that social programmes should promote family stability and avert breakdown.’

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith used a speech to say the government would intervene to stop parents splitting up

He added: ‘You don’t help families by shrugging your shoulders when parental relationships fall apart. ‘When families are strong and stable, so are children – showing higher levels of wellbeing and more positive outcomes. But when things go wrong – either through family breakdown or a damaged parental relationship – the impact on a child’s later life can be devastating.’ Today’s ONS figures also show there are an estimated 69,000 same sex couples who are cohabiting and an additional 66,000 couples who have entered a civil partnership.

 Source: Daily Mail UK 

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