Census 2001 - Families of England and Wales

This release looks at:

 Married couple households     Cohabiting couple families
 Lone-parent families     Children     Pensioners     Background Notes

The family picture of England and Wales today reflects a change away from the married couple model that dominated for most of the 20th Century. However, over half of adults still live as married couples and still form more than four in ten of all households.

The census reflects the growing numbers of people living alone or as lone parents. Nearly a third of adults remain single and one-person households now represent 30 per cent of all households. Lone parents account for 10 per cent of households and nine out of ten lone parents are women.

Some of the other main findings are:

• London has the smallest proportion of married couples.
• Across England and Wales 48 per cent of married couple households have dependent children.
• Fewer than 10 per cent of adults are living as non-married cohabiting couples.
• Nearly half of female lone-parents and nearly two-thirds of male lone parents are in work.
• Overall almost a third of households contain dependent children and one in nine have children under-five.
• One in six households with dependent children has no working adults.
• Nearly a quarter of all households consist of pensioners only.

Married couple households

Married couples make up 50.7 per cent of the population of adults (aged 16 and over) and occupy around 45 per cent of households. (this comprises married couples plus all pensioner households many of whom will be married).

However the percentage of married couples in the population is declining. In 1991 it was 55 per cent, in 1981 it was 64 per cent and in 1971 it was 68 per cent. This is in marked contrast to the increase in the percentages of single (never married) people and divorced people. Single people went up from 26.3 per cent in 1991 to 30.1 per cent in 2001, while divorced people went up from 1.3 per cent in 1971 to 6.2 per cent in 1991 and 8.23 per cent in 2001.

The region where married couples form the greatest proportion is the East of England where 54.5 per cent of adults are married and make up around 49 per cent of all households. London is the region with by far the lowest rates of married people and households. Around 34 per cent of households in London are formed of married couples and only 39.9 per cent of the adult population live as married couples. The region with the next lowest proportion of households with married couples outside London was the North West with around 44 per cent.

Eleven of the 13 districts with the lowest proportions of married couple households are in Inner London where they make up just one in four of all households. Islington is the borough with fewest adults who are married couples with just 25.8 per cent - barely half the England and Wales average.

Looking just at non-pensioner married couple households, the picture is that nearly half of them (48 per cent) contain dependent children and a further 16.4 per cent contain grown up children only. Although households in London show the smallest proportion of non-pensioner married couples, they have the highest rates of dependent children. In London as a whole it is 53.3 per cent and in Inner London it is 53.8 per cent, while Newham has 62.1 per cent. Conversely, Newham (22.5 per cent) has the fewest with no children at all.

In contrast, the North East has just 46 per cent non-pensioner married couple households with dependent children and the county with the smallest number is Norfolk with 43.6 per cent.

Looking at non-pensioner households where grown-up children remain with married parents and there are no other dependent children, the North East region has 18.7 per cent while Merseyside as a whole (21.3 per cent) and Liverpool in particular (23.0 per cent) are the local areas with the most. The South West (14.6 per cent) and Wiltshire in particular (13.4 per cent) have the fewest.

The remaining 36 per cent of non-pensioner married couple households in England and Wales have no children. The South West is the region with most married couple households with no children (39.3 per cent) and Dorset in particular has 42.3 per cent.

Cohabiting couple families

The number of households made up of cohabiting couples accounts for less than one in 10 of all households and of all adults. However, this compares with just over one in 20 (5.5 per cent) households in 1991.

Across England and Wales cohabiting couple households make up 8.3 per cent and 9.8 per cent of the adult population lived in such households.

The region with the most cohabiting couple households is the East Midlands (8.8 per cent), although London (10.3 per cent) has the highest proportion of adults overall who are cohabiting.

At local level though it is Brighton and Hove that shows the highest proportions of all. Cohabiting households make up 11.5 per cent and 14.8 per cent of all adults are cohabiting.

By contrast, the lowest proportion of cohabiting households is in Wales (7.5 per cent of all households and 8.8 per cent of all adults). In England, it is in the North East region (7.8 per cent of households and 9.1 per cent of all adults). Merseyside too was low (6.4 per cent of all households and 7.7 per cent of all adults) but the borough with smallest proportions is Harrow in north west London with 5.4 per cent households and 6.2 per cent of all adults.

Nearly 40 per cent of cohabiting-couple households contain dependent children. Although Wales and North East England have smaller proportions overall of cohabiting households, they are more likely to have dependent children (North East 46.0 per cent, Wales 44.9 per cent; and Blaenau Gwent 54 per cent and Hartlepool 56.2 per cent).

The majority of cohabiting-couple households, however, have no children (57 per cent) and in Inner London this is 70.9 per cent of all cohabiting couples.

Lone-parent families

Just under one in ten households in England and Wales are lone-parent (9.6 per cent) and more than nine out of ten of these are headed by a woman. Two thirds of lone-parent households have dependent children and the remaining third contain only grown up children.

The region with the highest proportion of lone-parent households with dependent children is the North West with 7.7 per cent and Merseyside has 9.7 per cent. In Knowsley district more than one in six of all households consist of lone parents with children (both dependent and grown up).

The district with the most is Newham in London with 11.9 per cent. The South East region has fewest (5.2 per cent) and within that Surrey has just four per cent while the district with the fewest is East Cambridgeshire with just 3.1 per cent.

Looking just at lone-parent families with dependent children, 90.5 per cent are headed by women. Male-lone parents are proportionately most common in the East Midlands where they make up 11 per cent of lone-parent households.

Male lone parents are more likely (62.9 per cent) to be in work than women (47.8 per cent). They are also more likely to be in full-time work than women who mainly work part-time.

In the North East just 18 per cent of female lone parents have full-time work and a further 27 per cent have part-time work. Overall, more than half of women lone-parent households with dependent children have no work, 26.4 per cent part-time and 21.4 per cent full-time.

Wokingham with 38.6 per cent has the highest proportion of women lone parents in full-time work.

Children

Almost 30 per cent of household in England and Wales contain dependent children and one in nine have children under-five. The West Midlands is the region with the highest proportion of dependent children (30.7 per cent) but Newham is the district with the most (37.5 per cent). Newham is also the district with the highest proportion of children under-five (17.2 per cent).

The South West has the lowest proportion of children (27.3 per cent) and just 10.2 per cent of households with children under-five. Just 24.9 per cent of households in Dorset have dependent children and in Devon 9.2 per cent have children under-five. In London only one in ten households in the City of London has dependent children and Westminster one in six.

Of all households with dependent children 59 per cent are married couple households, 11 per cent cohabiting couples and 22 per cent lone-parent families (London 26.2 per cent).

Over a fifth of households with dependent children in London have no adults working and Tower Hamlets, Islington, Hackney, Newham and Haringey all have fewer then one in three working. This compares with one in six across the country.

Nearly one in ten households in England and Wales has a grown-up child still living in homes where there are no dependent children. The highest proportion is in the North East (10.6 per cent) and the lowest in the South West (8.3 per cent).

Pensioners

Almost a quarter of households in England and Wales consist of pensioners only and the region with the highest proportion is the South West (27 per cent). Dorset has 33.4 per cent pensioner households and Christchurch district 40.6 per cent.

The lowest is in London (18.4 per cent) much lower than any other region (West Midlands is next lowest at 23.8 per cent). Inner London has just 15.2 per cent pensioner households (Lambeth 13.1 per cent was lowest overall).

Of all-pensioner households 61 per cent are single person and 38 per cent are a couple or family. The remainder contained people not all of whom are a couple.

Background Notes

1. Dependent children are those under 16, or are aged 16-18, studying full-time and living in a family with one or both parents.

2. A person living as part of a cohabiting couple could in fact be married to someone else, but would not appear as married or separated in this classification.

3. The total proportion of married couples presented here come from table KS 20 and comprise married couples and one-family all-pensioner householders many of whom will be married. The exception is where we specifically exclude the one-family all-pensioner households having specifically identified them as non-pensioner married couples.

4. All-pensioner households are those which consist entirely of men aged 65 and over, and women aged 60 and over.

5. Census day was 29 April 2001. Census data give a snapshot picture of the country at this time. Population counts by age and sex for England and Wales, Wales, regions of England and English and Welsh local authorities were published on 30 September 2002.

6. The Office for National Statistics is responsible for the census in England and Wales. The Census in Scotland and in Northern Ireland is carried out by the General Register Office for Scotland and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency respectively. Census data for Scotland and Northern Ireland are released separately.

7. Detailed Census results published today are mainly for England and Wales and its regions and local authorities. Individual press releases are available for Wales and each of the nine English Government Office Regions: North West, North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, East Midlands, South West, South East, London and the East. Press releases covering six key Census topic areas are also issued today: Ethnicity and religion, Families, Health, Households, People and places, Work. Census data published today are available free on the National Statistics website: www.statistics.gov.uk/census/

8. Further releases of Census data will take place through Spring and Summer 2003. In March/April there will be cross-tabulated data, followed by data down to small area/ward level. In the summer will begin a series of multi-source topic reports which draw upon other sources in addition to census to provide detailed pictures of specific topics and areas.

9. Details of the policy governing the release of new data are available from the press office.

10. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference. © Crown copyright 2003.