Separation Statistics

General information on separation

Between 150,000 and 200,000 parental couples separate each year.
HMG July 2004 Green Paper Parental Separation: Children’s Needs and Parents’ Responsibilities 93% of resident parents are female and 89% of non-resident parents are male. Office of National Statistics

60,000 - The number of lone fathers in 1970
178,000 - The number of lone fathers in 2006
Equal Opportunities Commission, Twenty-First Century Dads

The EOC estimate the difference between the time mothers (2hrs 32min) and fathers (2hrs 16min) spend caring for children each day is 16 minutes.
Equal Opportunities Commission, Completing The Revolution: The Leading Indicators

In 2006 23 per cent of children in Great Britain were living in lone parent families. This has increased from 21 per cent in 1997 and 7 per cent in 1972.
Office for National Statistics (2007) Social Trends. Palgrave Macmillan

37 per cent of children of lone parents live in poverty in the UK (lower than 60 per cent of median household income before housing costs) compared to 18 per cent of children in couple families.
Department for Work and Pensions (2008) Households Below Average Income (HBAI)

(Regarding parent relationship) All but one of the parents’ interviewed in depth reported bad feelings or conflict at some point. Almost all also reported angry exchanges with their ex-partner or verbal abuse from them, with a few describing harassment of even violence.
Victoria Peacey, Joan Hunt, ‘I’m not saying it was easy, contact problems in separated families’ (Gingerbread 2009 p86)

• Children born outside marriage - 38%
• Births to unmarried parents -  232,663
• Unmarried fathers signing birth register - 75%
• Parental Responsibility Agreements - 3,000
• Parental Responsibility Orders - 5,587
• Children registered without a father - 8%
Source: Fathers, Marriage and the Law (FPSC 1999) - 1996 figures