Family structures

Table 1.1 contrasts the marital status and size of all family units with children (of any

age) in the 2011 and 2022 census. The overall trends for marital status remained

relatively stable across time. For both 2011 and 2022, three-quarters of all families

with multiple children were headed by a married couple but was just over half for

families with one child. The proportion of one-parent family structures was greater in

families with one child at both time-points, and one-parent mothers were much more

common than one-parent fathers (30% vs 6% in 2022).

There was, however, a noticeable change over time in the number of children in

families with a same-sex couple (CSO Table F3068). In 2011, there were just 353

children in this family type but that increased to 1853 by 2022. Female-female

couples were predominant at both time-points.

Table 1.1: Family size and marital status for all families with children in the 2011 and 2022 census

Source: CSO Table F3009

3 All table references in the format ‘F3 etc’ or ‘VSA etc’ are the original CSO data tables

Housing