Parents who never married were significantly more likely to have split up [1] compared to those who married at some stage, whether before or after their child was born, an analysis by the Marriage Foundation has found.
Data from the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study showed 46% of first-born children aged 14-years-old were not living with both natural parents.
Divorce accounts for less than a third of all family breakdown, rising from 10% of breakdown involving first-born children aged 3 to 31% of breakdown involving children aged 14.
Among natural parents of 14-year-olds still living together, 84% were married.
This means while marriage is responsible for the majority of family stability (84%), marriage is only responsible for the minority of family breakdown (31%).
In terms of raw data, 60% of parents who never married split up compared to 21% of those who married before their child was born and 32% who married afterwards. But even when considering a wide range of socio-demographic controls the probability of splitting up was still 46% for never married parents, significantly higher than the 26% for those marrying before and 27% for those marrying after their child was born.