Married couple families still the majority, finds ONS

Marriages or civil partnerships represent two thirds of all families in 2023 in the UK, according to new figures released today by the Office

Marriages or civil partnerships represent two thirds of all families in 2023 in the UK, according to new figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Families and Households.

Married families comprise 66 percent of all families, 62 percent of families with children, 79 percent of all couples and 82 percent of couples with children.

The slow trend away from marriage conceals a great of change over the past few decades. While fewer couples are getting married, those in the higher income groups continue to embrace marriage enthusiastically for themselves. The trend away from marriage has been most pronounced in the lower income groups. A major reason for this is the disgraceful and perverse ‘couple penalty’ in the welfare system that disincentivises couple formation, where moving in or marrying is penalised by a loss of benefits.

While family breakdown has been rising steadily in recent years, with 24 percent of households headed by a lone parent, the driver of this is not divorce but the collapse of unmarried families. While divorce rates have been falling for decades, cohabiting relationships continue to remain substantially far riskier. This is also apparent from a tail-off in the proportion of families headed by a cohabiting couple. Cohabiting households may be Britain’s fastest growing household type. But cohabitees tend either to split up or marry. Relatively few remain happily cohabiting.

Two major UK studies published in the last five years show clearly that, regardless of background, married families are more likely to stay together. These new figures from ONS provide an opportunity for policy-makers and manifesto-writers to remind themselves that the family structure they invariably choose for themselves, marriage, is also the structure most likely to help couples find the reliable love they seek.

Harry Benson, Research Director, Marriage Foundation, 8th May 2024

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