September newsletter - Family Unfriendly Britain

Family Unfriendly Britain

Hello!

Last week I had the honour of speaking at the Budapest Demographic Summit. The conference was in part celebration of Hungary’s ‘family friendly’ policies that have resulted in sharp rises to their fertility and marriage rates and part an opportunity to address the wider global issue of falling fertility rates.

Headlined by socially conservative prime ministers Viktor Orban of Hungary and Georgia Meloni of Italy, this kind of conference is unimaginable in most western countries where talk of increasing fertility and marriage rates is anathema.

To coincide, we released a paper comparing ‘Family Unfriendly Britain‘ with ‘Family Friendly Hungary’, covered in the Times. You can read the written version of the talk I gave at the conference on the ‘Psychology of Commitment and Marriage‘. I hope you find it interesting.

Thank you so much as ever to our supporters. If you can help us champion marriage, click here!

Harry Benson
Research Director, Marriage Foundation

Family breakdown costs £50bn a year

When couples split up, families move from one to two households. Poverty is a common outcome that affects children. Six out of ten lone parents are supported by the state compared to one out of ten couple parents. That's where most of the £50bn is spent.

UK Among highest family breakdown in Europe

Five years ago, the UK had the highest rate of family breakdown in Europe. We're not doing as badly today, but only because of big falls in divorce rates. Alas there's no sign of a similar improvement among cohabitees

Lower Divorce Rates – Higher Lone Parents

Divorce rates have plummeted over the past 3 decades, but the number of lone parents has doubled in the same period. Why?... Because unmarried parents make up only one in five cohabiting parents but are responsible for one half of all family breakdown.

Stability is found in Marriage

Whereas stability is the norm if parents are married (75% stay together), it is the exception if they are not (30% stay together). As a result, among parents of teens who are still together as a couple, nine out of ten are married

Single Most Important Factor

The single most important factor in a child’s healthy development is the stable relationship of the parents. Our groundbreaking research shows that family breakdown is the #1 predictor of teenage mental health problems.

September newsletter – Family Unfriendly Britain

Harry Benson

Read Harry’s September newsletter here

Family Unfriendly Britain

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