Family splits hit unwed more than married

By THE number of family breakdowns involving unmarried couples has for the first time overtaken those of married partners, in what campaigners are calling a “national tragedy”.

Analysis of the Office for National Statistics figures shows that despite unmarried couples with children making up just one in five of all parents, they now account for more than 50 per cent of splits that involve children.

While there are more than 4.8 million families where the parents are married and 1.26 million where they are not, more than 50 per cent of separations in 2016 were unmarried couples. Ten years ago, families where the parents cohabited made up 45 per cent of splits.

Harry Benson, of the Marriage Foundation, who analysed the data, said the increase was due to a rise in the number of families where the parents are unmarried. In 2006, there were 954,000 cohabiting couples, compared to 1.26 million in 2016.

But last year 51.4 per cent of families with parents who split up were unmarried, compared to 48.1 per cent of married couple families. Same-sex couples with children made up 0.5 per cent of splits.

The group, which campaigns for the public understanding of marriage, said the increasing number of unmarried couples would lead to more children being adversely affected by a split-up.

Sir Paul Coleridge, founder and chairman of the Marriage Foundation, said: “Whenever family breakdown statistics are discussed, people assume it means married couples divorcing, but that is not the real mischief.

“The real mischief is that separating cohabiting – as opposed to divorcing – couples are four times more likely to split up. This is the driver of the national tragedy of mass family breakdown.”

The UK has one of the highest levels of family breakdown in Europe.