The collapse of family life: Half of children see parents split by 16 as births outside marriage hit highest level for two centuries

Shocking: Half of children see parents split by the age of 16 according to figures released (Picture posed by models)

The astonishing speed at which traditional family life has collapsed is laid bare today.

Shocking figures reveal that births outside marriage are at their highest level in two centuries and nearly half of children can expect their parents to separate by the time they turn 16.

Nine out of ten couples now live together before – or instead of – tying the knot. Before the Second World War, it was fewer than one in 30.

From a situation 30 years ago where it was often considered shameful to have a child outside of wedlock, it has now become the norm. 

Some 46 per cent of children are born to unmarried mothers, according to research by the Centre for Social Justice.

The think-tank said a child growing up in a one-parent family is 75 per cent more likely to fail at school, 70 per cent more likely to become a drug addict, 50 per cent more likely to have an alcohol problem and 35 per cent more likely to be unemployed as an adult.

Some 48 per cent of children are likely to see their family break up before they are 16. Ten years ago, it was 40 per cent.

Gavin Poole, executive director of the CSJ, which was set up by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, said: ‘Current high levels of cohabitation are a key factor in the rise in family breakdown in our country and this paper shows that we have not been here before. 

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‘Marriage and commitment tend to stabilise and strengthen families and cannot be ignored. The peculiarly high levels of family breakdown found in Britain are at the heart of the social breakdown which is devastating our most deprived communities.

‘Strengthening families is vital, both to the health of Britain and in ensuring a more socially just society.

Nearly 90 per cent of couples live together before, or instead of, getting married

‘We cannot ignore the wealth of evidence showing that the family environment in which a child grows up is key in determining their future life outcomes.’

The report says the decline in the traditional family is a crucial factor in the social decay that is blighting Britain.

It finds that – at around 5 per cent – levels of births outside marriage were the same in the 1950s as in the 1750s.

They remained at low levels through the 19th century and stayed flat until the 1960s. But since then they have soared. By the late 1970s, 10 per cent of babies were born to single or unmarried parents, by 1991 it was 30 per cent and today it is 46 per cent.

The authors of the research point to evidence suggesting that in the 1950s and 1960s, only 1 to 3 per cent of couples cohabited before marriage.

Today, nearly 90 per cent of couples live together before, or instead of, getting married.

Family breakdown, the experts claim, is being fuelled by the growth in the less stable relationship of cohabitation. ‘A child growing up in a fractured, chaotic or fatherless family is far less likely to develop the pro-social skills essential for success later in life,’ Mr Poole said.

The report rejects the claim from some academics and campaigners that there is nothing new about contemporary levels of family breakdown.
They have insisted that the ‘permissive’ trends of the 1960s were not a break with long-established patterns of family life.

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Professor Pat Thane, a historian at King’s College, London, published research last year claiming that pre-marital sex, cohabitation and family breakdown were common features of life for centuries.

But the CSJ’s examination of evidence stretching back to the 18th century, by Professor Rebecca Probert of Warwick University and Dr Samantha Callan, suggests a break with the past.

 

Professor Probert and Dr Callan say in their report: ‘It is not our intention to suggest that all marriages in the past were happy and long-lasting, nor that there were no examples of successful and stable cohabiting relationships.

‘But the quality of family life should be distinguished from its form. The fact that a number of marriages were brutal and fleeting should not obscure the centrality of marriage to family life in previous decades. The UK’s retreat from marriage has had negative effects for children, families and society, given that 80 per cent of relationship breakdown in young families takes place in unmarried families.

Warning: Experts said that children in a fractured family were less likely to develop pro-active social skills

‘Divorce rates are high but have been stable for the last quarter of a century and the upward pressure on breakdown statistics and public expenditure comes from the greater instability associated with more informal partnerships.’

In its 13 years in power, Labour was accused of undermining the institution of marriage and the UK stands almost alone among European countries in failing to recognise traditional family structures in the tax system.

France, Germany, Denmark and Norway all recognise the role of stay-at-home spouses.

In 2003, the term ‘marital status’ was deleted from official forms. Most Government-sponsored research, meanwhile, refers only to ‘couple parent families’.

Today’s report will increase pressure on David Cameron to make good on his commitment to restore the transferable tax allowance for married couples to send a clear signal of support for an important institution.

The Prime Minister has pledged to introduce a marriage tax incentive before the end of this Parliament in 2015.