Trends in Family Structure

• The diversity of families and households in the UK has been slowly increasing since 2012
• Types of families on the rise


  • Cohabiting households
  • Reconstituted families
  • Single-parent families
  • Kidult households where adults live with their parents
• There's been a slight decrease in traditional 'cereal packet' families
• Multigenerational households saw a minor decrease, making up only 1% of households in 2022
• Single-person households and lone-parent families increased marginally yet represent significant proportions of UK households
• Opposite-sex non-married cohabiting family households increased from 15.7% to 18.4% of all family households in the UK
• Opposite-sex married family households decreased from 67% to 65.2% of all households
• Opposite-sex married and cohabitating families together make up 81% of all family households
• The number of step families with dependent children in England and Wales declined from 631,000 in 2001 to 544,000 in 2011
• In 90% of step families with only one biological parent, that parent is the mother rather than the father
• Lone-parent families made up 15% of all families in the UK in 2022, down from 17% in 2012
• 84% of lone-parent families were lone-mother families in 2022
• In 2020 there were an estimated 2.3 million separated families in Britain, with an estimated 3.6 million children
• 89% of parents with care in 2020 were female and under the age 50, and 86% of the non-resident parents male and 80% were under 50
• 29.6% of all households in the UK were single person households in 2022, up slightly from 29% in 2012
• The number of adults living with their parents rose by over 14% between 2011 and 2021 to 4.9 million adults
• In 2022 31% of males aged 20-34 lived with their parents compared to only 22% of females aged 20 to 34
• married family households are decreasing, cohabiting family, lone parent family and single parent family households are all increasing
• Families in the UK in 2022


  • 19.4 million families
  • Married couple family - 65% of all families (down from 67% in 2012)
  • Cohabiting couple families - 19% of all families (up from 16% in 2012)
  • 2.9 million lone parent families - 15% of all families
  • 43% of families had no children living with them
  • 42% of families had at least one dependent child
  • 15% of families had only non-dependent children living with them
• Households in the UK in 2022


  • 28.2 million households
  • 18.8 million (57%) one family households (with or without children)
  • 10% lone parent family households (84% lone-mother)
  • 8.5 million (30%) single person households
  • 3% unrelated adults living together
  • 1% multi family, including multigenerational
• The average household had 2.36 people living in it in 2022, similar to 2012
• Married couple families


  Decreased from 67% of families in 2012 to 65.2% in 2022
• Opposite-sex cohabiting families


  Increased from 15.4% to almost 19% of all families
• Lone parent families


  Decreased slightly in the last ten years to 15% of all families in 2022
• Same-sex cohabiting and same-sex civil partner families


  Increased and together make up 1.2% of all families in 2022, up from 0.8% in 2012
• Cohabiting families


  Increased from 2 million in 1996 to 3.7 million in 2022
• Married families


  Remained stable between 1996 and 2018, but declined quite sharply in the last four years to 2022
• Family size in the UK in 2022

  • 44% one child families
  • 41% two children families
  • 15% three children families
• Household size in the UK


  • 30% one person
  • 35% two people
  • 17% three people
  • 14% four people
  • 5% five people
• Multi family households


  Increased from 180,000 in 1996 to just over 300,000 in 2014, then decreased to 280,000 in 2022
• People living alone


  Slow and steady increase, with more older people living alone and fewer younger people living alone
• Nuclear family


  The 'traditional' family type that was more common in the 1950s
• Main types of family that have 'replaced' the nuclear family


  • Reconstituted families
  • Divorce-extended families
  • Single parent families
  • Single person households
  • LAT relationships
  • Multigenerational households
  • The modified extended family
  • Shared households/ families of choice
• There are more cohabiting rather than married couples
• There is more cultural ('ethnic') diversity
• There are more openly same-sex couples and families
• There is greater 'organisational diversity': of gender roles
• There is greater 'life-course diversity': More adults are continuing to live with their parents
• Both Functionalist and Marxist Sociologists theorised that the nuclear family was central to most people's experiences in modern industrial society
• Recent research has suggested that postmodern societies are characterised by a plurality, or diversity, of household and family types, and so the idea of a dominant or normal family type is now misleading