One-parent Households (Hansard, 7 September 2004)

§ Mr. Woodward

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate the Government have made of

Number of dependent children living in lone parent families—UK Government Office Regions, 1997–2004
								Thousand
Area of residence	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
United Kingdom	2,762	2,916	2,905	2,863	3,043	3,037	3,033	3,084
North East	142	146	145	148	144	149	164	158
North West	392	428	405	397	410	464	430	411
Merseyside	116	129	116	103	107	122	125	111
St. Helens	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	11	12	¹—	¹—
Yorkshire and Humberside	241	247	242	242	260	248	249	262
East Midlands	175	174	163	162	196	195	187	170
West Midlands	240	258	251	257	279	269	254	255
Eastern	197	206	205	196	222	226	219	230
London	427	458	486	487	461	480	485	554
South East	298	289	289	285	325	325	328	315
South West	181	193	192	175	209	197	192	191
Wales	144	169	181	169	165	160	157	166
Scotland	231	250	249	246	269	233	259	261
Northern Ireland	93	98	95	100	103	94	108	110

Percentage of dependent children living in lone parent families—UK Government Office Regions, 1997–2004
								Percentage
Area of residence	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
United Kingdom	20.8	22.0	21.9	21.6	23.3	23.2	23.2	23.6
North East	24.3	24.8	24.7	26.2	26.3	27.4	30.5	30.6
North West	24.7	26.8	25.7	25.4	26.7	28.9	26.7	26.3
Merseyside	31.9	37.1	35.2	32.8	34.0	35.3	36.3	316
St. Helens	¹—	¹—	¹—	¹—	26.9	27.2	¹—	¹—
Yorkshire and Humberside	21.4	22.4	21.9	22.2	23.3	23.5	23.5	24.5
East Midlands	19.1	19.1	17.6	18.0	21.3	20.9	20.3	18.7
West Midlands	19.8	21.8	21.2	21.4	23.1	22.7	21.8	21.4
Eastern	16.6	17.4	17.4	16.6	18.6	18.7	18.1	19.1
London	26.0	27.6	28.8	28.2	29.0	28.1	27.9	31.2
South East	17.3	16.4	16.3	15.9	18.6	18.7	19.4	18.1
South West	17.4	18.6	18.4	16.2	20.3	19.3	19.2	18.6
Wales	22.1	25.0	26.6	25.2	25.4	24.1	24.9	26.3
Scotland	21.2	23.1	23.8	23.7	25.3	23.0	24.9	26.0
Northern Ireland	19.3	20.9	21.1	22.6	22.9	21.1	24.0	24.9
¹Not available.
Source:
Labour Force Survey and 2001 Census. ONS
2001 Census Northern Ireland Statistics
2001 Census General Register Office for Scotland

1206W

(a) how many and (b) what percentage of children lived in one parent households in (i) St. Helens and (ii) the UK, broken down by region, in each year since 1997. [186821]

§ Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Shaun Woodward, dated 7 September 2004:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question #oncerning the number and percentage of children living in one-parent households in (a) St. Helens and (b) the United kingdom broken down by region in each year since 1977. (186821)

The attached table shows estimates of the numbers of dependent children living in one-parent families in private households, and the proportions they represent of all dependent children living in families in private households. These estimates have been derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), apart from the year 2001 for which that year's Census data are shown.

The LFS provides estimates for the United Kingdom, countries of the UK and Government Office regions as well as local authority data for certain variables. However, the most recent year for which estimates are available on children in one-parent families in St. Helens local authority is 2001. Estimates for this specific variable are not available at local authority level before 2001.