For the past 20 years, birth rates have been lower in Scotland than in England. For instance, in 2000 the total fertility rate in Scotland was 1.47 children per woman compared with 1.66 in England. Births outside marriage have increased rapidly in both countries, but more so in Scotland. By 2000, 43% of Scottish births were outside marriage compared with 39% of English births. Also, Scotland has persistently had higher death rates. At 1999 age-specific mortality rates, the expectation of life at birth for women (men) is 78.2 (72.8) in Scotland, compared with 80.2 (75.4) in England. Differences in these vital rates contribute to differences in household and family structure, as well as population age structure. The chapters in this section deal with behaviour within families, the formation of families and households, their residential movement and their housing.

As noted in Chapter One of this book, a growing body of research suggests that the interaction between children and parents in the home is important for achievements in school and subsequent success in the labour market. In this light, the present integration of family policy, education policy and skills policy in Scotland has considerable potential. It is, however, important to establish ‘baselines’ of differences in family interactions between England and Scotland and in their impact on important decisions such as staying on at school. Such baselines help us evaluate the impact of the new Scottish policies as they evolve.

The first two chapters of this section do so using the British Youth Panel (BYP), which is administered to children aged 11-15 in British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) households. Lynn Jamieson and John McKendrick (Chapter Two) find, for the most part, that young people’s reported interactions with their parents and friends are similar in Scotland and England. However, there are some potentially important differences. In particular, Scottish young people's parents appear to monitor their behaviour less than their peers in England. For instance, the minority of adolescents who do not ‘always’ or ‘usually’ tell parents where they are was twice as large in Scotland. Also, a larger minority of Scottish than English young people reported having been out after nine o’clock at night without parents knowing their whereabouts and having played truant.