The Marriage Advantage: Why Children Thrive with Married Biological Parents

This page has been retired. The evidence on why children do best with married parents, brought up to date and fully sourced, is now at https://www.c4m.org.uk/marriage-support/why-marriage-matters - the headline figures are at the top of that page and the section on children follows. The statistics on marriage in the United Kingdom are at https://www.c4m.org.uk/marriage-support/marriage-facts-and-figures.

For readers who came here for the age-five figure: by the time they turn five, 53 per cent of children of cohabiting parents have experienced their parents' separation, against 15 per cent of children with married parents - Centre for Social Justice, Family Structure Still Matters, 2020, page 5, at https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/CSJJ8372-Family-structure-Report-200807.pdf.