Age distribution
Cohabiting couples are youngest families
Age of family reference person: by family type, April 2001, UK
Cohabiting couple families are much younger than married couple families. In 2001 half of cohabiting couple families in the UK were headed by a person aged under 35, compared with just over a tenth of married couples.
A couple's age is taken from one of the adults. The difference in age between cohabiting and married couple families is mostly explained by whether they have children living with them. Cohabiting couples with no children tended to be younger than married couples, reflecting the increase in the number of people choosing to cohabit instead of, or before, getting married.
Lone-parent families were younger than married couple families, and lone-mother families were younger than lone-father families. One in three lone-mothers were aged under 35, whereas fewer than one in ten lone-fathers were under 35. In a lone-parent family young children are more likely to live with their mother than their father.
Age of family reference person: by presence of children, April 2001, UK
In 2001 families with dependent children were more likely to be headed by a younger person than families with non-dependent children or families with no children living with them.
Over 60 per cent of families with dependent children were headed by a person in their 30s or early 40s, and 55 per cent of families with non-dependent children were in their late 40s or 50s.
Half of families with no children were aged 55 to 74 and nearly all of these were married couple families. There was also a peak in the proportion of families with no children for those in their late 20s and early 30s.
Sources: Census, 2001, Office for National Statistics; General Register Office for Scotland; Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency
Notes:
Family: a married/cohabiting couple with or without child(ren), or a lone-parent with child(ren). Cohabiting couples includes same sex couples
Dependent children: aged under 16 in a household, or 16-18 in full-time education in a family.
Non-dependent children: never married children aged 16 & over who have no children & are living with their parent(s)(excludes children aged 16-18 in full-time education). There is no age limit.
Family Reference Person (FRP) is used to identify a family and its characteristics. The FRP in a couple is based on economic activity, then age (oldest), then the first member of the couple on the Census form. In 2001 most FRPs were men – of FRPs aged 16 & over, 80% of FRPs in married couple families & 73% of FRPs in cohabiting couple families were men; 14% of lone-parent families were lone-fathers.
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