Posted on 02/21/2006 7:57:32 AM PST by Sopater
Half of all babies will be born to unmarried mothers by 2012 if present trends continue, says new research that suggests the rapid erosion of moral and religious taboos.
Moreover, fewer than half of families will consist of married couples and up to a third could be lone parents, said Dr Peter Brierley, a former Government statistician now specialising in religious trends.
Dr Brierley's projections followed the publication of official figures yesterday showing that the number of births outside marriage has almost quadrupled in recent decades.
The Office for National Statistics' Social Trends report, an annual snapshot of Britain, said that the figure rose to 42.3 per cent last year.
In 1994, the figure was 32 per cent and in the early 1970s it was less than 10 per cent.
The number of births outside wedlock exceeds 50 per cent in some parts, including Wales. In the North East, it was 54.1 per cent last year.
In London, where a higher proportion of young mothers are Muslims who adhere to more conservative family values, a third of children were born outside marriage.
The report said Britain now had the fourth highest level of births outside marriage in Europe, after Sweden, Denmark and France.
Much of the rise comes from a sharp increase in people living together. But the number of one-parent families is also increasing.
The figures have alarmed family campaigners, who say the collapse of marriage could have a serious impact on social structures.
They say that most of the statistical evidence suggests that children brought up by married parents do better than those raised by cohabiting couples or lone parents.
Dr Brierley, the executive director of Christian Research, an independent organisation that analyses Church statistics, said he had tracked birth patterns for his latest publication, Religious Trends 5.
"If we get to the stage where more than half of children are born outside marriage, we are fundamentally changing the basis on which society has worked for centuries.
"A whole range of traditional thought about 'home', 'marriage' and 'living together' will have to be re-examined.
"Psychologists say the children from single-parent families do not achieve so much or behave so well as those raised by married families."
Dr Brierley said his extrapolations show the number of married families will decline from 62 per cent in 2001 to 49 per cent in six years.
In contrast, the proportion of cohabiting couples will rise to about 18 per cent (from 13 per cent in 2001) and one-parent families could represent up to 33 per cent of the population (compared to 25 per cent in 2001).
"There is much more at stake here than statistics," he said. "The implications are quite frightening."
Although much concern has focused on single parents, cohabiting couples also provide less stable backgrounds for children, said the Economic and Research Council, a Government-funded social research body.
John Ermisch, a professor of economics at Essex University, said in a paper for the council: "Only 35 per cent of children born into a cohabiting union will live with both parents throughout childhood, compared with 70 per cent born within marriage."
Campaigners and Church leaders have accused politicians of marginalising marriage by undermining its legal and financial privileges and shying away from promoting it above other types of family.
Labour abolished the last tax break for married couples, the Married Couples' Allowance, while its tax credit system is said to favour single-parent families.
Ann Widdecombe, a former Tory Home Office minister, said: "After the death of the extended family, we are now seeing the death of the nuclear family.
"The long-term consequences are bad for everyone. A well-ordered society is based on the bedrock of marriage, otherwise we will have increasing social disruption."
<< Moreover, fewer than half of families will consist of married couples and up to a third could be lone parents ... >>
By the Sodomites and Gommorohites and other perverts "definition" of "family," perhaps.
But not by mine nor by Almighty God's.
I agree, but sadly, to a growing number of children this is their definition of family as well.
The continuing decay of the West.
Keep an eye on the crime rate.
What is the out-of-wedlock birth rate in the US these days? Must be pretty high.
This is only possible because of massive welfare payments.
Also marriage discouraged because of taxes.
But after a while you can just tax so many people to support the single parents and their offpsring. Somewhere and sometime, the bottom of the tax barrel is going to be reached.
I would use an Anglo Saxon expletive but I wont so I will say go boil your head from me and all my mates and fellow country men serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations.
Can only increase as the more stable and capable families immigrate to greener pastures.
Funny enough I saw an article in the press saying that support for marriage amongst Britain's young is growing again.
In the white population, it's about 30%, among blacks it's in the 60s or so.
In Washington DC, it's 93%...
Ah, post-Christian England, can we be far behind?
This is on your profile page:
"Mel Gibsons film the patriot was a pile of cr*p, loved it when the British officer while wounded run Mel Gibsons all American priggish son through with a sword. "
I apoligize and stand corrected...a nation of Bloody Bastards!
Camden NJ it is 91%. Take a stab at the demographics of that "town".
And in Sweden and other European countries who recognize queer mariages, there will be no births at all.
Europe already has a declining birth rate. The population is maintained by the swarms of Third World immigrants who are coming into Europe.
The guy - he is a meat head macho lazy fool that won't get a job and support a wife and family.
The gal - she sleeps with the guy in hopes that after the deed he will ask her to be his girlfriend. Note, I didn't say wife.
The Masses....
But in the end it's life, so that I'm happy with....
Exactly. Whether or not children are born to parents who have a "marriage" registered with the government is of no consequence, except when many of the parents are not self-supporting, and the government confiscates money from responsible people to pay to raise the children and often to support a single parent as well. Eliminate the welfare programs and you'll still see a variety of non-traditional family structures developing, but they wouldn't be the kind that are currently most prevalent, and which are a major drain on society's resources.
With a very limited grasp of the English language, to boot...
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