Families in a global context

• In China the extended family is the basic family unit instead of the nuclear family.
• In South Asia some cultures have arranged marriages, the families are patriarchal, they have a lot of joint or extended family. However there are still quite a few nuclear family households as divorce is rare, also nearly all elderly live with relatives and children usually remain as a part of their parents’ household until marriage and sometimes a bit longer.
• In Indian-Caribbean families the father is seen to have the most authority and to be the main breadwinner as well as being head of the family, yet it is often matriarchal as it is the mother's responsibility to bring up the children.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa the structure of the family is polygyny as most of the males have more than one wife but most families in Africa live in a nuclear family or an extended family. 
• UK: In the UK there is a wide range of family types which consist of nuclear families, extended families and reconstituted families. The average British family is to be understood as a nuclear family with an extended family living in separate households and the traditional family structure in the UK is the nuclear family.
• UK: The most common type of family in the UK is married couple families, in the UK 36% of British households are nuclear families. Now families are not all made up of married parents living with their children as lots of families consist of stepfamilies, cohabiting parents, single parents, couples living apart and civil partnerships. As of 2022, it is estimated that 8.34 million people will live alone in the Uk which is an increase of around 36,000 when compared to 2021.
• Japan: The father is also seen as the decision maker for the family but the mother also has a strong say as to what happens family wise, the mother especially has a say when it comes to things like the children's education and the finances of the family. In Japan the role of the wife is to keep track of finances, make economic decisions and to give their husbands an allowance. They need to shop and buy fresh produce daily and also take pride in cooking nutritious meals. Two-parent households are the most common and divorced/single parents are less common than in Europe.
• Japan: In Japanese culture the nuclear family is the most common but they also have a lot of extended families which consists of three generations living together.