A new review of family life in the UK, published by the Nuffield Foundation, found that the majority of children under five now grow up in a household where both parents work, reflecting increases in state-funded care such as the 30-hours funded entitlement.
It cites data showing that 66% of women whose youngest child is two-years-old were employed in 2018 compared with 49% in 1996.
Family structures are also changing. Nearly two thirds (61%) of children spent their childhood in families with married parents in 2019, compared to 71% in 1996, as public attitudes towards parenthood preceding marriage have ‘relaxed significantly’. In 2012 41% of people said people who want children ought to get married compared with 71% in 1989. Conversely, just 14% of people in 1989 thought same sex relations were ‘not wrong at all’, compared with 66% in 2018.
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