ONS perspective on “Family Life in
Britain in the 21st Century”
Dr Veronique Siegler
Office for National Statistics, Measuring National Well-being
Email: veronique.siegler@ons.gsi.gov.uk
Phone: 01633 45 5934
http://www.ons.gov.uk
Twitter @ons
Annual Families and Households publication
Gives the most recent estimates of the number of families by type.
Source: Labour Force Survey (LFS)
Short reports of topical areas of interest
such as family size, young people living with their parents, stepfamilies.
For example, in 2011, in England and Wales:
• There were 544,000 stepfamilies = 11% of couple families with
dependent children
• Nearly 1 in 10 dependent children lived in a step family
• The number of stepfamilies with dependent children has fallen by 14%
from 631,000 in 2001
Contact: Demographic Analysis Unit
families@ons.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1329 444022
Measuring National Well-being
The Measuring National Well-being Programme aims to
provide a fuller picture of 'how society is doing' than is
given by economic indicators such as GDP
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc146/wrapper.html
Why measure Children’s Well-being?
- Children’s well-being is an important aspect of the wellbeing of the nation. In 2012 there were 12 million children =
nearly a fifth of the total UK population..
- Research from the Children’s Society (2013) has shown
that a significant minority of children in the UK suffer from low
well-being and this impacts on their childhood and life
chances as well as for the families and communities around
them.
Article published March 2014: a draft set of measures of
national well-being for children aged 0 to 15, alongside a
draft set of measures of national well-being for young
people aged 16 to 24.
Measuring National Children's Well-being:
relationships of children with parents
Measure
Source
Latest
year
Latest data
Proportion of children who quarrel with
a parent more than once a week
(mother/father)
Understanding
Society
2011/12
28% (mother)
20% (father)
Proportion of children who talk to a
parent about things that matter more
than once a week (mother/father)
Understanding
Society
2011/12
63 % (mother)
40% (father)
Proportion of children who eat a meal
with family 3 or more times in the last
week
Understanding
Society
2011/12
75%
Plans for the future
• ONS will continue to develop the measures for
children and young people, taking account of
ongoing feedback from users and experts.
• The headline measures are likely to be maintained
regularly as part of the ongoing work of the National
Well-being programme.
• There will be further analytical outputs.
Contact:
nationalwell-being@ons.gov.uk