Couples who 'live in sin' becoming the family norm
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Friday June 01 2007
THE number of cohabiting couples has rocketed by almost 57pc, making it the fastest growing family unit.
New census figures show that the number of people living alone and as unmarried couples has soared while the conventional family unit has edged up only marginally.
The change in Irish life is most evident in Dublin, where less than one in five households consists of the traditional family unit.
Eroded
The new figures are illustrated in the Central Statistics Office's (CSO) latest correlation of results from last year's census.
The traditional Irish family unit is being slowly eroded. There were 477,705 households containing the traditional husband, wife and children in 2006. While the number of nuclear families has risen by 3.3pc, it is well below the 8.2pc rise in population since 2002, the previous census.
Dr Evelyn Mahon, from the School of Social Work and Social Policy in Trinity College, said the slight rise was positive and quite rare internationally. "I think most countries would say that even a maintenance of the status quo would be a good thing," she said.
According to the census, there are now 4,123,318 people living in Ireland.
On average, just under one-third of households in the State have the traditional family while the cities - Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford - have the lowest figures.
Meath and Kildare are the counties with the highest number of traditional families. This is as a result of the expansion of the commuter belt outside of Dublin, said Dr Mahon.
"There is very little family housing in Dublin. If you want to live with children, couples are really resorting to living in Meath and Kildare," she said.
The comparative decline in traditional families has been met with a huge rise of people living alone, which has increased almost one fifth since 2002.
There are just below 330,000 single-person households in Ireland - a rise of 51,877 since 2002.
The change in the traditional family has been met with a corresponding rise in the number of cohabiting couples, which now make up 11.6pc of households.
Cohabiting
There has been a drop in offspring over the age of 20 still living with parents.
Prof Tony Fahey of the school of social policy in UCD said that grown-up children can afford to live independently of parents.
"What seems to be happening is the formation of the traditional family happens in slightly longer stages where there is possibly a period of cohabitation before people marry."
- Shane Hickey
