Families with dependent children

In 2006, there were 515,800 families with dependent children (aged under 18 years and not in full-time employment) living within New Zealand households. They made up 80 percent of the 641,500 families with children of any age.¹³

The number of families with dependent children increased by 8 percent in the five years to 2006, the largest increase since the census count of families began in 1976. The number of two-parent families with dependent children grew faster than the number of one-parent families (9 percent, compared with 3 percent). As a result, the proportion of families with dependent children headed by one parent fell slightly, from 29 percent in 2001 to 28 percent in 2006. By 2031, one-parent families with dependent children are projected to account for 34 percent of all families with dependent children, according to the 2006-based mid-range family projection released in 2010.

Table P5 Families with dependent children, by family type, 1976–2006

	1976	1981	1986	1991	1996	2001	2006
Number
Two-parent family	398,772	380,886	363,489	339,681	346,086	339,159	370,809
One-parent family	46,296	62,280	82,632	110,055	126,585	140,178	145,032
Mother only	39,153	52,938	71,388	92,028	107,394	117,018	120,996
Father only	7,143	9,342	11,244	18,024	19,191	23,163	24,036
Total families	445,068	443,166	446,121	449,736	472,671	479,337	515,841
Percentage distribution
Two-parent family	89.6	85.9	81.5	75.5	73.2	70.8	71.9
One-parent family	10.4	14.1	18.5	24.5	26.8	29.2	28.1
Mother only	8.8	11.9	16.0	20.5	22.7	24.4	23.5
Father only	1.6	2.1	2.5	4.0	4.1	4.8	4.7
Total families	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Source: Statistics New Zealand, published and unpublished census data
Note: The census definition of child dependency has changed over time. From 1996, a dependent child is a person in a family aged less than 18 years who is not in full-time employment. For earlier years, a dependent child is a person in a family under 16 years or aged 16–18 years and still at school.

New Zealand and the United States have the highest proportion of families with children under 18 years headed by sole parents (both 28 percent in 2006).¹⁴ In the same year, the share of one-parent families was 25 percent in the United Kingdom, 22 percent in Australia and Canada, and 21 percent in Ireland.

In the mid-2000s, parents living with dependent children had an older age profile than their counterparts in the mid-1980s. In 2006, the median age of all parents living with dependent children was 41 years for fathers and 38 years for mothers, up from 38 years and 35 years, respectively, in 1986. Sole mothers tend to be younger than partnered mothers, with a median age of 37 years in 2006, compared to 39 years for mothers in two-parent families. Conversely, sole fathers tend to be a little older than partnered fathers, with a median age of 42 years in 2006, compared to 41 years for fathers in two-parent families. In same-sex couples, the median age of parents with dependent children was the same for both female couples and male couples (37 years in 1996 and 2001, 39 years in 2006).

Table P6 Median age (in years) of parents living with dependent children, by family type, 1986–2006

Family type	1986	1991	1996	2001	2006
Two-parent family
Father	38	39	39	40	41
Mother	35	36	37	38	39
One-parent family
Father	40	39	39	41	42
Mother	34	33	34	36	37
Total families
Father	38	39	39	40	41
Mother	35	36	36	38	38

Source: Statistics New Zealand, unpublished census data
Note: The data for two-parent families refers to parents in opposite-sex couples only.

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