Families with children

Regional Comparison

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In 2001, there were 590,700 families with children living within New Zealand households, 81 percent of which contained dependent children (aged under 18 years and not in full-time employment).¹⁰

The number of families with dependent children increased by 6.6 percent in the decade to 2001, compared with an increase of just 1.5 percent in the previous decade. The most significant change in families in the past two decades has been the shift from two-parent to one-parent families. This was more pronounced in the 1980s, when the share of one-parent families increased from 14 to 24 percent, than in the 1990s, when it rose to 29 percent. One-parent families are expected to continue to increase, but at a slower rate. Family projections based on trends since 1986 suggest that, by 2021, one-parent families are projected to make up around 35 percent of all families with dependent children. For many of these families there will be parents living in another household who are actively involved in the care and upbringing of the children.

Table P3 Families with dependent children, by family type, 1976–2001

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

Sources: Statistics New Zealand, published and unpublished census data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 and still at school

New Zealand has a relatively high proportion of families with children under 18 years headed by sole parents (29 percent), second only to the United States (31 percent in 2001) and higher than the United Kingdom (22 percent), Australia and Canada (both 21 percent).

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