Study Shows Decline in Britain’s Families

Just under one in three British children are living without one of their biological parents, according to figures published by Britain’s Office for National Statistics.

The figures also suggest that by 2033, more adults will remain unmarried than married if current trends continue. The percentage of adults who are married is predicted to fall from 49 percent to 42 percent. In the meantime, the proportion of adults who have never married is expected to rise to 42 percent.

The number of cohabiting couples is projected to rise from 2.3 million to 3.8 million.

Family campaigners are rightly concerned about the numbers.

“It is a bleak picture,” Anastasia de Waal, the director of family and education at the independent think tank Civitas, said. “We know that cohabiting in this country does not reflect marriage and is less stable [than] marriage.

“If we see a proliferation of cohabiting then we will see a decline in stable relationships, and that has major implications for children, who are more likely to face separation.

“The picture is not a happy one if this is the case.”

“The government needs to be hugely concerned about this trend, as it has huge personal, social and economic consequences for us all,” says Dr. John Hayward from Christian social reform charity, the Jubilee Center. “Already 3 in 10 births are to cohabiting couples, but cohabitation is a very unstable form of relationship. The average lasts less than 2½ years.”

“Of all cohabiting couples who have children, half will separate by the time the child is 5 years old, compared with just 6 percent of married couples who have children.”

Hugh McKinney from the National Family Campaign blames the government for marriage’s decline: “Successive governments have ensured that the focus on the family has changed from marriage to non-marriage, and it is about time that the balance was redressed.”

Britain’s new coalition government has pledged to change this. In its coalition agreement, it wrote: “The government believes that strong and stable families of all kinds are the bedrock of a strong and stable society. That is why we need to make our society more family friendly.”

Is the government right to try and resuscitate marriage? Why does the marriage union produce more stable families? Where did marriage even come from anyway? For answers to these questions, read our free booklet Why Marriage! Soon Obsolete?