One-Parent Families

HC Deb 25 October 1989 vol 158 cc479-80W

Mr. Norman Hogg

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the number of one-parent families recorded in England and Wales.

Mr. Freeman

The best available recent estimate of the number of one-parent families is that of 1,010 thousand in Great Britain in 1986. This was given in an article in Population Trends 55—which is in the Library. The article explains the definition used and the qualifications to be attached to the accuracy of such estimates. It is thought that, of this total, about 100,000 families are in Scotland with the balance of about 910,000 families in England and Wales.