Thursday Apr 16 2009

A generational shift has seen the number of young women having children exceed the number getting married for the first time, official figures have revealed.

Women under 60 were asked about important events in their lives before they reached 25. The younger they were, the less likely they were to have either married or given birth.

But the most recent cohort, aged between 25 and 29, was the first in which more were mothers than had walked down the aisle.

The figures were published by the Office for National Statistics in its annual Social Trends study of how Britain is changing.

Young people are living at home longer and more likely to live alone when they move out, the figures showed.

Nearly three million people — around a third of young men and a fifth of young women — still live with their parents. The number of men is up 2% and women up 3% on 2001.

The high cost of housing was the reason eight out of 10 gave for staying at home. One in 10 said they wanted home comforts “without the responsibilities”.

In 1971, three million people, or 6% of the population, lived alone. By last year that more than doubled to 12% or seven million people. The change is mostly among people of working age, the ONS said.

The survey of key events in women’s lives before they turned 25 was conducted between 2001 and 2003.

Of women in Great Britain then aged 25-29, fewer than a quarter (24%) said they were married before 25, while 30% had at least one child. And of women then in their mid to late 30s, nearly half (45%) said they married before 25, while a third were mothers.

Older generations saw much higher rates of marriage and motherhood at a young age. Three quarters of women aged 55 to 59 were married before they were 25 and more than half (51%) had children.

Social Trends brings together hundreds of pages of figures from government and outside organisations to present a snapshot of Britain now and to chart how it has changed over the decades.

Britain is a more environmentally friendly place in some respects. The amount of household waste recycled has increased from 8% to 35% in the past 10 years.

But green tendencies do not extend to the motor car. Fewer households have no car and more have two or more, the figures reveal. The most recent figures showed more than a quarter (27%) had access to two cars, compared with 10% 30 years ago.

Northern Ireland's vital statistics

• There were around 8,700 marriages in 2007, an increase of 5% on 2006

• the number of divorces increased between 2006 and 2007 by 14% to around 2,900

• the majority (87%) of civil partnerships formed in the UK in 2007 were in England, followed by Scotland (8%), Wales (3%) and Northern Ireland (1%).

• More men than women registered partnerships in England (56%) and Northern Ireland (54%) in 2007

• 56% of three and four-year-olds attended maintained nursery and primary schools

• ln 2007/08, at Key Stage 1, the proportion of classes of 31 or more pupils in Northern Ireland was 3%

• In 2007/08, 261,800 pupils (2.7%) in the UK had statements of Special Educational Needs or had support needs; 13,000 (3.9%) were in Northern Ireland

• there were 45 |permanent pupil expulsions in 2006/07 and a further 4,981 fixed period suspensions of pupils

• Northern Ireland had the lowest proportion of people living in working households (45%)

• the Annual Population Survey showed that in 2007, employment rates were highest in Scotland (76%), followed by England (74%), Wales (71%) and Northern Ireland (70%)

• household expenditure per head was 8% lower than the UK average

• in 2007, gross income per head in Northern Ireland was 18% less than the UK average

• infant mortality rates increased from 67.8 per 1,000 live births in 1930, to 85.9 per 1,000 live births in 1940, but have steadily fallen since, to 4.9 per 1,000 live births in 2007

• in England, 93% of children had been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and polio, and whooping cough, compared with 98% in Scotland and Northern Ireland

• over the last decade, lung cancer incidence for both men and women in Northern Ireland has remained fairly steady; there were 887 new cases in 2006

• the incidence of prostate cancer among men has risen 78% in the last decade, from around 460 incidences in 1996 to 818 in 2006. In 2000 prostate cancer overtook lung cancer as the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in Northern Ireland, probably the result of increased Prostate Specific Antigen testing

• between 1996 and 2006, breast cancer was also the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer among women in Northern Ireland. Over that period, incidence of breast cancer rose by 15% from 850 to 977 cases

• Northern Ireland has the lowest proportion of women screened for cervical cancer in the UK. However, Northern Ireland was the only country of the UK to show an increase in screening, from 66% in 1995/96 to 73% in 2006/07

• 23% of both men and women aged 16 and over were smokers in 2007/08

• the number of anti-depressant prescriptions dispensed was five times higher in 2007 than in 1991

• on average, 1,320 grams of fruit and 1,176 grams of vegetables were consumed per person per week in England compared with 1,076 grams of fruit and 876 grams of vegetables in Northern Ireland

• people consumed more meat per person per week (256 grams) than those in the rest of the UK

UK’s ageing population

Here is a selection of statistics from Social Trends published today by the Office for National Statistics.

• There are now 12.8 million people under 16 and 16.5 million people of pensionable age in the UK.

• In 2007 the number of pensioners exceeded the number of under-16s for the first time.

• By 2021 average life expectancy for men is expected to reach 81.3, more than three years lower than women at 84.7 years.

• In 2006 the average man lived for 77.2 years and the average woman 80.4 years.

• The average age for women getting married has increased nearly two years since 2006 to nearly 30 for women and 32 for men.

• The number of couples getting married in England and Wales fell more than 40,000 to 236,980 in 2006 from 278,975 in 1996.

• The ageing population is costing more. Council spending on older people rose from £4.5 billion in 1997 to £8.66 billion 10 years later.

• Young people are most likely to be victims of mobile phone theft. Nearly 5% of 12 to 24-year-olds have had their mobile phones stolen.

• The British Crime Survey shows perceptions of crime levels have stayed the same while total crime numbers have fallen.

• Some 55% of 12 to 15-year-olds in the UK have a social networking site profile.

Living with the parents... it’s a double-edged sword

Jamie McDowell reflects on life as one of our 3m kidults

New figures showing that almost a third of men aged between 20 and 34 live at home with their parents come as no surprise to me.

The life of a ‘kidult' can be a double-edged sword. One might be drawn to believe it's an easy existence. And sure, it's nice to have access to a house that you wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.

Having food in the fridge, few bills to pay and a widescreen tele are not to be scoffed at. For a small amount of money towards my keep it's a bit of a bargain really. And when it's getting close to payday it's always nice to have someone to borrow a tenner off.

But there are several downsides to living with your parents. Lack of privacy is a major drawback. In a relationship it's hard to spend time with your partner without treading on other household members' toes. Television time is rationed, shower gel endangered and confectionery tagged.

Age will always be a factor that a bank takes into account when looking at your profile. Of course credit cards obtained whilst at university don't help. Those boozy weekends at Portstewart don't seem so ‘legendary' when a bank manager turns you down for yet another mortgage.

The offers of loans and store cards seemed like a brilliant idea when you had 10 minutes to kill before your next lecture and the student branch of the bank are having a ‘giveaway' bonanza.

House prices continue to drop but they are still nowhere near low enough for me to even consider making an offer. Then there's the deposit. One of the most galling things for me was last month when a mortgage advice centre worker said to me: “most people's parents pay their deposit”.

But perhaps the most frustrating thing about the life of a kidult is the way in which you are viewed by others — that you're too lazy to get your own place or that you've got used to your ‘lifted and laid' lifestyle.

Older generations may turn their nose up at us. But they did not have to deal with the financial stresses of the modern world when growing up. Many people made a lot of money during the halcyon days of the housing market upswing. But for the kidult it has been all bust and no boom.