LONDON, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cohabiting couples are the fastest growing family units in Britain, more than doubling over the last two decades to 3.3 million families, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Friday.
In its annual survey of families and households, ONS said the 12.7 million married or civil partner couples are the most common type of family in Britain. In total there are now almost 19 million families in Britain.
The study also shows a quarter of young adults aged 20 to 34 live at home with their parents, increasing from 21 percent in 1996.
ONS said around 7.7 million people live alone in Britain, most of them women, while the number of lone parent families has grown by 18.6 percent over the two decades, a statistically significant increase.
Of the 2.9 million lone parent families in Britain in 2016, 86 percent are headed by a female lone parent, the remaining 14 percent as headed by a male lone parent. These percentages have changed little over the 20 years since 1996.
ONS said this could be associated with women being more likely to take the main caring responsibilities for any children when a relationship breaks down and therefore becoming lone parents.
Opposite sex married couple families accounted for 79.1 percent, or 12.7 million, of all couple families while the 3.2 million opposite sex cohabiting couple families were the next largest type, representing almost 20 percent of the total. Same sex couple families (including civil partner, same sex married and same sex cohabiting couple families) accounted for 1 percent of all couple families.
Of the same-sex couple families, the largest group, 87,000 were cohabiting, same sex civil partnerships accounted for 47,000 families and the number of same sex families in which the partners are married number 29,000.
Pamela Cobb, Head of Demographic Analysis at ONS, said: "In 2016, married or civil partner couple families remained the most common type of family in the UK although cohabiting couple families were the fastest growing family type over the last 20 years. The growth in cohabiting couple families may be due to couples choosing cohabitation as an alternative or precursor to marriage."
