Introduction

Over the last 30 years, the number of lone-parent families in Australia has trebled from 7.1% of families with children in 1969 to 21.4% in 1999 (ABS, various years). The level of lone parenthood in Australia is thus somewhat lower than in other English-speaking countries or some Nordic countries, but higher than in many countries of continental Europe.

Rates of growth of lone parenthood were particularly rapid in the 1970s (10.5% per year on average), slowed in the 1980s (3.4% per year), but increased again in the 1990s (6.5% per year, and from a much higher base). Table 4.1 summarises trends in family formation and dissolution related to the growth in lone-parent families. Over the past 30 years fertility rates have declined, as has the crude marriage rate. The divorce rate was very low (under one per 1,000 population) until the 1975 Family Law Act, which provided for no fault divorce after 12 months separation. The divorce rate rose sharply in 1976 to more than 4.5 per 1,000 of population. This largely reflected the formal recognition of a backlog of longstanding marriage breakdowns. After 1976, the divorce rate dropped back to fluctuate between 2.5 and 2.9 per 1,000 of population. This is equivalent to between 10 and 12 per 1,000 married persons. The proportion of divorces involving children fell from around 60% in 1986 to around 53% in 1998.

Births outside marriage have increased significantly, from less than 10% in the 1960s to around 29% in 1998. However, the proportion of all births where the father has his name on the birth certificate has increased from under half in the 1970s to more than 85% by the late 1990s. It can be calculated that 4.9% of persons born in 1976 did not have their father officially identified, but in 1998 this was around 3.7%. Teenage birth rates have fallen very significantly from 48.9 per 1,000 female teenagers in 1966 to around 20 per 1,000 female teenagers in the late 1990s. This was mostly related to a sharp fall in the early 1970s, and a more gradual decline thereafter, with rough stability since the late 1980s. Cohabitation has become more common, although it is still only a small proportion of couples who live together.