British families among most unstable in the developed world
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Britain has some of the most unstable families in the developed world, a new study has found.
Figures released by the Marriage Foundation show that the majority of British children born to co-habiting couples will see their parents break up, while a third of British 12-year-olds have seen their married parents separate.
The Foundation’s Chairman, Sir Paul Coleridge, described the figures as a “loud wake-up call” to the UK’s family breakdown “epidemic”.
Britain has highest breakdown rate
The international study of 100 countries found that three in five British children (62%) born to unmarried couples experience family breakdown before they hit their teen years. This stood in contrast to 45% of American children, 15% of Belgian children and 6% of Spanish children.
But even married families in Britain were found to have one of the highest rates of family breakdown in Europe.
A third of British 12-year-olds whose parents were married when they were born have experienced family breakdo...
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