New data from the Office for National Statistics


The “Families and households in the UK: 2022” report has been released by the Office for National Statistics. The report shows the current trends in living arrangements including families (with and without dependent children), people living alone and people in shared accommodation, broken down by size and type of household.

The Office for National Statistics notes as main points that:

  • In 2022, 43% of families (8.3 million) had no children living within them, 42% had one or more dependent children (8.2 million) and 15% had only non-dependent children (2.9 million).
  • Married or civil-partnered couple families accounted for the majority of families in 2022 (66%), while cohabiting-couple families accounted for almost 1 in 5 families (19%) and lone-parent families accounted for the remaining 15%.
  • Married-couple families remain the most common type of family in 2022 (12.7 million), accounting for 65% of all families. Since 2012, the number of married-couple families has increased from 12.3 million, however this family type has been generally declining as a proportion of all families over time (67% in 2012).
  • “Opposite-sex cohabiting couple” was the fastest growing family type over the last 10 years. In 2022, these made up 18% of all families (3.6 million opposite-sex cohabiting couple families), an increase from 16% of all families (2.9 million) in 2012. This increase of almost 700,000 families accounted for almost three-quarters of the total growth in the number of families in the UK over the ten-year period.
  • There were 2.9 million lone-parent families in 2022, accounting for 15% of all families. This is not significantly different to 2012, when there were 3.0 million lone-parent families, equivalent to 17% of all families. While the majority of lone-parent families are lone-mother families (2.5 million, 84%), in 2022, 16% (457,000) were lone-father families. Lone-mother families are more likely to include one or more dependent children (66%) than lone-father families (48%).
  • Same-sex cohabiting couple families account for 0.6% and civil-partner couple families (both same sex and opposite sex) account for a further 0.6% of all families in 2022.

These findings tell us that there are many different types of families in the UK but the one thing they may all have in common is the need for legal advice from time to time. Our Family Department at Barker Gotelee is ready to assist with any queries regarding relationship breakdown or arrangements for children. Please contact our team in confidence for advice.

Amanda Erskine is a solicitor in the Family department at Barker Gotelee Solicitors in Ipswich.

Suffolk Divorce Solicitors – for more information on our range of legal services, please call the team on 01473 611211 or email [email protected]