Childbirths outside wedlock in Britain at its highest in 200 years
April 19th, 2011 - 11:09 am ICT by IANSLondon, April 19 (IANS) Call it falling social values or diminishing faith in the institution of marriage, Britain is faced with the reality of witnessing an unprecedented number of childbirths outside wedlock in the present time.
A study in Britain has found that more children are born outside marriage today than at any other point in the last 200 years.
As per the research conducted by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a think-tank, the proportion of couples living together without tying the knot has also grown from less than five percent before 1945 to a whopping 90 percent in the present time, The Mirror reports.
Historical documents show births outside marriage in Britain and Wales hovered around the five percent level in the 1750s, with spikes during the two world wars, before rising steadily from the 1960s onwards.
By the late 1970s the figure was more than 10 percent, rising to 30 percent by 1991 and reaching 45 percent today, says CSJ that was founded by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.
The report’s authors, Rebecca Probert of Warwick University and Samantha Callan of the CSJ, argued that the facts do not bear out claims that rates of cohabitation outside marriage were high in the early 20th century.
They pointed to research suggesting that in the 1950s and 1960s only 1-3 percent of couples lived together before marriage.
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Tags: 1750s, 1950s, 1960s, births, callan, historical documents, iain duncan smith, institution of marriage, present time, probert, samantha, social justice, social values, spikes, study in britain, tying the knot, unprecedented number, warwick university, wedlock, work and pensions