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Families Matter: New ESRI Report Reveals Problems in Irish Family Life : 4th Mar 10
Families Matter: New ESRI Report Reveals Problems in Irish Family Life
Marriage in Ireland has declined steeply since the 1980s, a new report has confirmed. Family Figures: Family Dynamics and Family Types in Ireland 1986-2006, published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), reports that the number of people in non-traditional family forms, especially cohabitation and lone-parent families, had risen dramatically.
It also says middle-class people are far more “traditional” than those from more disadvantaged areas in that the former are far more likely to wait till marriage before having children.
Between 1986 and 2006, the report states, marriage rates for those 25 and under fell across all social classes. At age 25 in 2006, twice as many people cohabited as were married. Since 1996, it reports, there had been a fourfold rise in cohabitation, a rate that was consistent among all social groups. But rates of marriage rose among people over 30. The document shows that after age 28, most cohabiting couples had either split up or married. It also makes clear the link between social class and whether children were born outside marriage.
It says the relationship between low educational attainment and the likelihood of becoming a lone mother was “extremely strong”. One-quarter of women with lower second-level qualifications are never-married lone mothers by their mid-20s, compared to less than 15 per cent who have upper second-level qualifications and just 3 per cent of graduates.
The report shows that women with a third-level degree were ten times less likely to be single parents at ages 25 to 27 than those with no third-level education. It also notes that most women are now delaying having children till age 30 and older, with most now having two or three children. More than one out of every six women now have no children at age 45. Iona Institute. February 23.
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