Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The growth of lone parenthood is a trend common to many advanced industrial countries. In 1990 Britain had one of the highest rates of lone parenthood in Europe (with 19 percent of families with children being lone-parent families) along with Sweden (19 percent), Norway (19 percent), and Denmark (18 percent). The European countries with some of the lowest levels included Greece (5 percent), Ireland (9 percent), Italy (7 percent), Portugal (6 percent), and Spain (5 percent). This division suggests some combination of North/South, rich/poor, Protestant/Catholic factors at work. Countries that are generally rich, Protestant, and North European have much higher rates of lone parenthood than those that are mainly poor, Southern, and Catholic, though Britain cuts across this division as it has comparatively high rates of poverty but is Northern and Protestant. Culture and religion therefore seem important factors when seeking to explain variations in rates of lone parenthood. If we look outside of Europe but remain within the developed world, Japan had a very low rate of lone parenthood (4 percent) in the early 1990s, Australia had a slightly lower rate than Britain (15 percent), and the US had by far the highest rate (25 percent). The percentage of births outside marriage also varies substantially by country. This figure cannot be taken as a direct indicator of lone parenthood as these ... log in or subscribe to read full text