Number of unmarried couples rises by 65%

Unmarried couples living together are the fastest-growing family unit in the UK, official figures showed yesterday. There has been a sharp rise in the number of cohabiting couples both with and without children, according to the Office of National Statistics, which found that the numbers have gone up by 65 per cent in the past decade.

The number of unmarried couples rose from 1.4 million in 1996 to 2.3 million in 2006. Lone parents are also on the increase, with an 8 per cent rise in the number of adults bringing up children on their own. The number of married couples fell by 4 per cent in the same 10-year period, with just 12.1 million married couples remaining.

The study found family types varied according to age, with unmarried couples more likely to live together if they were under 35. Half of all cohabiting couple families in the UK are under of 35, compared to only one in 10 married couples in the same age category.

The number of young women who have lived with a partner has also risen fast. Almost a quarter of all women under the age of 25 have now cohabited, compared with just 1 per cent of their counterparts 30 years earlier. But this did not wholly account for the decrease in marriage rates, as there also seemed to be a lower proportion of women in any kind of union. The report said: "This suggests a delay in partnership formation for younger generations of women".

The study also analysed the effect of these changes on the children of cohabiting families. It found that 17-year-olds were most likely to be in education if their parents were married and they were not in step-families. A total of 69 per cent of boys and 78 per cent of girls at that age would be in education if they were in a traditional family unit.

Those with no qualifications were more likely to marry early but also less likely to marry later in life. Men and women over 35 who had no qualifications were much less likely to get married than those who had them. However, highly qualified women over the age of 45 were the least likely to get married.

Living with a partner is largely good for health, the report said, although older single women were generally healthier than their married counterparts. "Partnership continues to be the healthiest state in general," the study reported. "There are health benefits which are associated with partnership, especially marriage, but there are variations by sex".

Northern Ireland continues to have the largest families in the UK, with a quarter having three or more dependent children. Across the United Kingdom the average number of children in a family has fallen, from two in 1971 to 1.8 in 2006.