Cambridge Area Gingerbread

Key facts on one parent families

• There are an estimated 1.7 million one-parent families in Britain today - about a quarter of all families. They are caring for nearly 3 million children - just under one in four.
• Ninety per cent of lone parents are women.
• One-parent families reflect changing family patterns throughout western societies, with more couples cohabiting before both childbirth and marriage, and more divorce, re-marriage and stepfamilies. Although the divorce rate peaked in 1993, two in five marriages will still ultimately end in divorce.
• A one-parent family is now a stage in the life-cycle, lasting about five years. A third to a half of children will spend some time in a one-parent family.
• The fastest-growing group of lone parents is now single or never-married; most of these, however, are ex-cohabitees and would be better described as separated. In 1998, nearly 38% of births were outside of marriage but four-fifths (79%) of these were registered by both parents. Three-quarters (77%) of these joint registrations were made by couples living at the same address.
• A contributory factor to lone-parenthood is domestic violence. Thirty-five per cent of lone parents have experienced violence in their last relationship with three-quarters of them sustaining physical injuries.
• The average age for a lone parent is 34. Lone fathers tend to be older, with the largest proportion in their forties; lone mothers are most likely to be in their thirties. At any one time, less than 3% of all lone parents are teenagers (about 40,000).

Although society has been transformed since the days when the workhouse or the asylum were the only options for most unmarried mothers, one thing remains the same. In the year 2000 just as in 1918, poverty is the main challenge for lone parents and their children. More than three in five lone parents in the UK live in poverty. This is a sad reflection on the policy-makers of today.

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