A majority of British births are now out of wedlock
“That a majority of births in England and Wales are now out of wedlock is a tragedy,” said Ruth Institute President Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D.
According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2021, for the first time ever, more than half of all births (51.3%) were outside marriage or a civil partnership. In 2001, it was 40%.
Morse observed: “The majority of these children will grow up without their biological fathers in the home. In many cases, the male figure in the household will be a succession of the mother’s boyfriends. Statistics show that children are more likely to be abused by their mothers’ boyfriends than any other person in their lives.”
The Ruth Institute interviewed Douglas Kasten, a detective specializing in crimes against children. His ten-year experience confirms the science: children living with their married biological parents are safer from sexual and physical abuse than children in any other family structure.
Morse added, “In the United States, children raised in single-parent families have higher rates of poverty, substance abuse and early initiation of sexual activity than their counterparts in two-parent families.”
“Out of wedlock births are also a prescription for smaller families,” Morse observed. “It takes a particularly brave, or foolhardy, woman to have more than one child with a man who can end the relationship by simply walking out the door.”
In 2021, the fertility rate in the United Kingdom was 1.61 children per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1.
“We should encourage women to have more children, not celebrate a country’s path toward population decline and economic crisis,” Morse commented. “The Ruth Institute’s Demographic Winter Resource Center spells out the consequences of declining fertility.”
Yesterday, Morse was a guest on The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio to discuss this and other topics. You can listen here.
About the Ruth Institute
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization, leading an international interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love.
Jennifer Roback Morse has a Ph.D. in economics and has taught at Yale and George Mason University. She is the author of The Sexual State and Love and Economics – It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.
To schedule an interview with Dr. Morse, contact media@ruthinstitute.org.
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