The Phenomenon. Lone- or single-parent families, primarily lone mothers are becoming an increasingly significant family type in all the advanced industrialized countries (see Table 2.17a).According to Eurostat, lone parents are those who live alone with their dependent children (Lehmann and Wirtz, 2004). Dependent children are those under age 16 or 16-24 and living in a household of which at least one of their parents is a member and who are economically inactive (e.g. in education or training). Cohabiting couples, another growing family type, are no longer counted as single parents, at least in most countries.

According to Lehmann’s and Wirtz’s report (2004), lone parenthood can occur as the result of a breakdown in either a married or unmarried relationship that includes dependent children, or the birth of a child or children outside a partnership.

Despite the dramatic rise in the rates of single-parenthood over the last three decades, the extent varies across countries. In the EU-15, 9 percent of all households with children are lone-parent households (Lehmann and Wirtz, 2004). However, the range is from 22 percent in Sweden and 17 percent in the UK, to 4 percent in Italy, Portugal and Greece and 3 percent in Spain. The average across the 10 countries reported in a US DOL Bureau of Labor Statistics study (2003) ranges from a low of 8 percent in Japan to 26.5 percent in the US in 2002 with an overall average of about 20 percent. With only one exception, this family type is overwhelmingly female-headed, with between 80 and 90 percent of the parents lone mothers. Only in Sweden are 26 percent of these families headed by fathers.

In addition to these lone parents, a similar percentage of families with children (about 20 percent) are cohabiting especially in the Nordic countries, although the overall trend can be seen throughout the EU (except in Sweden where these cohabiting couple families are included among the married).

Lone mother families are at high risk for economic insecurity and poverty; and the children in these families are especially vulnerable. Child poverty rates in almost all the countries are disproportionately high among children living in lone mother families. Nonetheless, despite this, living in a lone mother family bears surprisingly little relationship to the child poverty rate (Unicef, 2000; See also, Kamerman et al., 2003). Other factors come into play, in particular, maternal employment and government income transfers.

The Public Policy Response. Governments in all these countries are being confronted by new needs and demands as a consequence of this development, whether as a result of divorce, separation, or never having been married – and despite the decline in widows.

Maternal employment and government-provided income transfers are both key factors in reducing child poverty in these families (Kamerman, et al, 2003). In 2001, in the EU, just over 70 percent of lone parents were working, most full time. Only in the Netherlands did more that half the mothers work part-time.

Policies responding to the income needs of lone parents include policies that enforce the child support or maintenance obligations of the non-custodial parent (as in the U.S.), policies that provide an advance on the payment of support and a guaranteed minimum level of financial support, trying to collect subsequently from the non-custodial parent (as in several of the continental European countries), and means-tested social assistance programs that provide income support for low-income families, a large proportion of whom are lone-mother families.

Different child maintenance policy regimes have been established in the EU and in many of the OECD countries. In a study carried out in the late 1990s, covering Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK, each country developed its child maintenance policy from a different legal and historical background; but the general trend has been towards equal treatment of all children regardless of the marital status of their parents (Corden, 2000). There has also been increasing emphasis on the rights of the child, with the Nordic countries taking the lead in this approach. In some countries this right is limited to a child under a specified age (eg 6 or 12)

The U.S. , U.K., Netherlands and Australia are among the few countries which have no specific scheme to advance child maintenance apart from social assistance (TANF in the US). In Norway and Sweden, for example, all resident parents may apply to the social security administration to pay a fixed amount of support and to take responsibility for collecting the payment.

The following tables are available to view and print in pdf format.

• Table 1.51: Lone Parent Households in EU-15, 2001

• Table 1.52: “Single” Lone Parents by Age and Sex and Number of Children in EU-15, 2001

• Table 1.53: Main Activity Status of Female Lone Parents and All Women Aged 25-49 in EU-15, 2001

• Table 2.17a: Single-parent households, 10 countries, selected years, 1980-2002

• Table 2.17b: Lone parents and lone mothers as percent of all families with children

• Table 2.18: Percentages of different types of lone mother families

References

Kamerman, S.B., Neuman, M., Waldfogel, J., and Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). “Social Policies, Family Types, and Child Outcomes in Selected OECD Countries”, Paris, France: OECD. Working Paper.

Lehmann, P. and Wirtz, C. “Household Formation in the EU – Lone Parents”, Statistics in Focus, Population and Social Conditions, Theme 3-5/2004)

Martin, G. and Kats, V. “Families in Transition: 12 Developed countries, 1990-2001”. Monthly Labor Review, Vol 126, No.9. September 2003, pp. 3-31

Unicef Innocenti Research Center, Florence, Italy. Innocenti Report Card # 1, June 2000. A League Table of Child Povtery in the Rich Countries.