One-parent families and their dependent children in Great Britain.

This article analyses a number of aspects of lone parenthood. First, it updates the estimated national numbers of one-parent families and dependent children living in them. The article then considers the composition of lone parents by their marital status and examines the family sizes of lone parent families and couple families, as well as contrasting the different age profiles of the different kinds of lone parent. Specially commissioned survey data on the marital and cohabitational histories of lone mothers, married mothers and cohabiting mothers are analysed to give a picture of their differing patterns of past partnerships. The article also investigates the people present in lone parent households in terms of their relationship to the lone parent.