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12/29/12

Britain: Broken-up Britain? UK epidemic of separated families - by Peter Macdiarmid

Research by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that the UK has one of the highest rates of family breakdown in the western world and that only 69% of children live with their mother and father.

The UK came only behind Belgium, Estonia and Latvia for broken homes and well below the average for OECD countries of 84%. The analysis looked at the living arrangements of children between the ages of 0-14 in 30 OECD member countries, it was reported in the UK media.

The worst country for broken families was Latvia with just 64.9% of children living with both parents. Finland had the most children living with both their mother and father at 95.2%. Italy stood at 92%, with Germany at 82%, and the US ahead of Britain on 70.7%.

The statistics also showed that the number of kids in the UK living with just their mother was 27.6%, while children living with their father was just 2.4%.

Christian Guy from the Centre for Social Justice explained that the figures were a depressing wake up call for UK politicians. “Timid politicians are becoming numb to Britain’s sky-high family breakdown rates. Behind too many front doors, instability damages adults and children. Yet, as these OECD figures show, broken families are not some inevitable feature of modern society or social progress.”

Read more: Broken-up Britain? UK epidemic of separated families — RT

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