Posted on 04/18/2010 11:38:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
THREE-QUARTERS of children in some parts of Britain will be born to unmarried mothers within the next parliament, official figures indicate.
The number of births to single mothers and unmarried cohabiting couples is set to exceed 50% across the country in the next five years.
However, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that births outside of wedlock in some areas are already the norm and continue to rise.
Knowsley, Merseyside, one of Britains most deprived areas, has the highest proportion of children born to unmarried mothers, with the figure on course to hit 75% by 2014.
Critics believe the trend is further evidence of a deterioration in family values under Labour. It will present David Cameron with a pressing social problem if the Tories who have pledged tax breaks to less well-off married couples win power at the general election.
Its tremendously worrying, said Ann Widdecombe, a former Home Office minister. I think marriage has become devalued, as people dont respect their wedding vows and therefore others dont see the point of it.
Children do much better at growing up against the background of two parents who are married and stably so.
When new Labour came to power in 1997 the proportion of births outside wedlock was 36.7%. That had risen sharply to 45% by 2008, the latest year for which data are available an annual rise of almost one point.
Some 30% of children were born to unmarried cohabiting couples, while up to 15% were born to single mothers.
The region with the highest proportion of births outside of marriage is the northeast (57%), closely followed by Wales (56%) and the northwest (52%).
By contrast, London has the lowest proportion of children born to unmarried mothers 36% in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at women.timesonline.co.uk ...
Does make you wonder if there’s ever a cultural awakening that reacts to all this decay, will it come from traditional institutions like the Tories and the CoE ...or will it come from muslim groups and different varieties of fascists?
When you subsidize something, you get more of it. When you tax something, you get less of it. The welfare state, both here and in the U.K., relentlessly taxes “the rich,” who are mostly two income married couples, to subsidize “the poor,” who are mostly unemployed single moms.
It’s not just the UK. We have large swaths of the US where the inmates are running the asylums.
Talk about a misleading headline. The Times USED to have standards.
Another success story for the left.
That’s a lot of British bastards.
When my wife and I got engaged there were at least two pages with pictures of the ladies betrothed.
Ditto marriage pictures.
In today’s paper there were two husband and wife pictures.
The others apparently have decided to shack up with their “fiances/fiancees!”
Some of these “engagements” have gone on longer than Dick Tracy and Tess Trueheart who finally got married after 17 years....with no kids in between!
The Brits are following the lead of the American African community
Looks like those areas have little in the way of employment, with twice the clain of Physical Incapacity than the national average. Nothing to do but make babies, so they aren’t all that incapacitated.
I said last week, on LP, that I almost, almost felt in some respects Islam would be an improvement over what I am seeing come out of the UK today. I was half joking. The more I see, the more I think I might have been on to something.
Every week, I read 3 or 4 articles that just blow away the previous weeks 3 or 4 articles in terms of depravity.
Some 30% of children were born to unmarried cohabiting couples, while up to 15% were born to single mothers.
This might not be quite as disastrous as in the US. It seems 2/3 of the British kids born out of wedlock are born to cohabiting, unmarried parents. In the US I know the stats would be at least reversed since our welfare and child support system rewards unwed mothers with no father involved in supporting the children. Mostly single mothers in the US, not cohabiting parents.
There, I fixed it.
Not exactly a great way to promote marriage, especially when you are already getting the milk for free.
Detroit ranks No.1 in unmarried births among the nation’s 50 largest cities. Of the 16,729 babies born in Detroit in 1997, 13,574 were black, 1,679 were white and 817 were Hispanic. Seventy-one percent were born to unmarried mothers.
Ya, USA is pretty much finished as well then.
The number of babies being born out of wedlock has increased sharply in the United States, driven primarily by significant jumps in women in their 20s and 30s having children without getting married, according to a new federal report from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Other findings:
More than 1.7 million babies were born to unmarried women in 2007, a 26 percent rise from 2002 and more than double the number in 1980.
The increase reflected a 21 percent jump in the rates of unmarried women giving birth, which rose from 43.7 per 1,000 women in 2002 to 52.9 per 1,000 women.
That means that unmarried women accounted for 39.7 percent of all U.S. births in 2007 — up from 34 percent in 2002 and more than double the percentage in 1980.
Some may take your statement at face value.
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