The decline of marriage and family

Yesterday it was marriage in Australia and this morning I was reading about marriage in the UK;

The marriage rate in Britain has collapsed to its lowest point since its government began keeping statistics in 1862. Even when discounting population growth, the numbers are embarrassingly low. According to Britain's Office for National Statistics (BONS), in 2006, the United Kingdom recorded a little over 228,000 marriages -- its lowest number since 1895, when its population was barely half what it is today.

The BONS study notes, the institution of marriage has been steadily eroding since the early 1970s:

* For Brits who choose to marry, 45 percent of new marriages will end in divorce; added to that, the average age for women entering first-time marriages is nearly 30 -- for men, it's 32.

* Of the marriages that stay together, based on a recent column in the London Times, an incredible 59 percent of married women said they would leave their husbands tomorrow if they could be assured of economic stability; meanwhile, half of the husbands questioned defined their marriage as "loveless."

* Forty percent of British babies are now born out of wedlock; the teen pregnancy rate in England and Wales is six times higher than in Holland -- three times that of France.

* Violent crime among teenagers in the United Kingdom has increased 37 percent in just three years, according to the London Telegraph; total offenses climbed steadily from 184,474 in 2003 to 222,750 in 2006, the last year for which figures are available—a rise of 21 percent.

In response to the study, British researcher Patricia Morgan says that the government has succeeded in "eradicating" marriage. "This is what they have tried to achieve and they should be congratulating themselves," Morgan said. "But it is a disaster for children, families and society."

So what about marriage in New Zealand?



And more recently;



In terms of how related matters compare to the UK as per above;

- the average age (of all marriage not just first) was 32.6 years for men and 30.4 years for women in 2006. Same as UK.

- 47 percent of babies are now born out-of-wedlock. Considerably higher than UK.

- The UK teenage birth rate is just under ours but remarkably similar. Ours is currently 31 per 1,000 15-19 year-olds

- according to Simon Power, since 1999, violent youth crime has increased by an alarming 44%.

So there we are, holding our own quite nicely.