UK Wedding News
03/12/2013
The revelation comes despite unmarried couples accounting for only one in five parents.
According to date from the office for national Statistics (ONS) cohabiting couples account for around 19% of parents, but in 2010 alone, they accounted for 48% of family breakdown cases.
The data provided by the Understanding Society survey, published this month, allowed the annual rate of family breakdown to be measured for the first time. While an average of 5.3% of cohabiting couples with dependent children under the age of 16 years old split up each year since 2009, only 1.3% of equivalent married couples separate.
And based on current trends, a report by the Marriage Foundation think tank has said the number of family breakdowns from unmarried households is expected to rise to 50% by the end of the year. It will be the first time more unmarried couples have split up than those who are married.
Harry Benson, from the Marriage Foundation, said: "This marks a significant tipping point for society today. We hear so often that rising rates of divorce is the cause of growing family instability, but these statistics prove how far that is from being the case.
"Divorce rates have actually been falling since 2004.
"It is frequently said that low income and poor education are the main reasons behind family breakdown, rather than whether or not the parents are married. But if anything, the average income and level in education has improved since the 1980s, while family breakdown has doubled.
"We haven't been getting poorer or less well educated these past thirty years, but we have become less willing to commit to our families. The link between declining numbers of marriages and increasing levels of family breakdown is plain for everyone to see.
"In short, we have an epidemic of family breakdown in this country because so few people realise how badly the odds of success are stacked against unmarried cohabitees. If you're living together as unmarried parents, you're four times more likely to split up than married parents.
"And that's why this research finds that one fifth of couples who cohabit account for one half of all family breakdown.
"94% of studies in OECD countries have shown that family breakdown has a detrimental effect on children's wellbeing.
"We also know that family breakdown presents estimated annual bill of £46 million to the taxpayer. The huge cost is due to the greater likelihood that single parents require additional financial support – benefits, tax credits and housing – as well as other support and interventions – such as health, domestic violence – in comparison with couple parents.
"That's why, for the sake of the children and society at large, parents and future parents should seriously consider making a concrete commitment to their family by getting married, or at the very least making a clear plan for where they are headed."
(JP/IT)
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Cohabiting Couples Account For Half Of All Family Breakdowns
New research has said that unmarried couples are to overtake their married counterparts as the main source of family breakdown by the end of 2013.The revelation comes despite unmarried couples accounting for only one in five parents.
According to date from the office for national Statistics (ONS) cohabiting couples account for around 19% of parents, but in 2010 alone, they accounted for 48% of family breakdown cases.
The data provided by the Understanding Society survey, published this month, allowed the annual rate of family breakdown to be measured for the first time. While an average of 5.3% of cohabiting couples with dependent children under the age of 16 years old split up each year since 2009, only 1.3% of equivalent married couples separate.
And based on current trends, a report by the Marriage Foundation think tank has said the number of family breakdowns from unmarried households is expected to rise to 50% by the end of the year. It will be the first time more unmarried couples have split up than those who are married.
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Harry Benson, from the Marriage Foundation, said: "This marks a significant tipping point for society today. We hear so often that rising rates of divorce is the cause of growing family instability, but these statistics prove how far that is from being the case.
"Divorce rates have actually been falling since 2004.
"It is frequently said that low income and poor education are the main reasons behind family breakdown, rather than whether or not the parents are married. But if anything, the average income and level in education has improved since the 1980s, while family breakdown has doubled.
"We haven't been getting poorer or less well educated these past thirty years, but we have become less willing to commit to our families. The link between declining numbers of marriages and increasing levels of family breakdown is plain for everyone to see.
"In short, we have an epidemic of family breakdown in this country because so few people realise how badly the odds of success are stacked against unmarried cohabitees. If you're living together as unmarried parents, you're four times more likely to split up than married parents.
"And that's why this research finds that one fifth of couples who cohabit account for one half of all family breakdown.
"94% of studies in OECD countries have shown that family breakdown has a detrimental effect on children's wellbeing.
"We also know that family breakdown presents estimated annual bill of £46 million to the taxpayer. The huge cost is due to the greater likelihood that single parents require additional financial support – benefits, tax credits and housing – as well as other support and interventions – such as health, domestic violence – in comparison with couple parents.
"That's why, for the sake of the children and society at large, parents and future parents should seriously consider making a concrete commitment to their family by getting married, or at the very least making a clear plan for where they are headed."
(JP/IT)
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