Single-parent families have never been so numerous – BFM Business

Forty years ago, only 10% of parents raised their children alone. In 2020, they represent, according to INSEE, a quarter of households with children.

Single-parent families have never been so numerous in France. According to a survey byINSEE published on Monday, they now represent a quarter of households with children. For forty years, this rate has continued to increase.

In the early 1980s, there were far fewer children raised by one parent. Only 10% of families were then single parents. This rate then progressed quickly enough to reach 16.7% in 1999. And this trend has been accentuated even further since the beginning of the century, reaching precisely 24.7%.

Obviously with major consequences on the economic and social plan. In 82% of single-parent families, it is the mother who must manage the education of her child or children. However, women are paid less than men.

Less than 1 in 3 single-parent families owns

In addition, among these mothers living alone, those who have a job are only 75%. This inequality is amplified by the housing issue. A priori, whether you live as a couple or whether you are alone raising your children, the area of ​​the living space should be the same.

Except that the average income of single parents being lower, housing conditions differ greatly from those prevailing in a traditional family (a couple raising their children together).

Thus, 37% of single-parent families live in low-cost housing against 16% for the traditional family. And, for lack of sufficient income to borrow, single-parent families are more rarely homeowners. While two-thirds of traditional families live in a home they own, this rate tops out at 29% for single-parent families. And, in any case, the latter live more cramped.

Without help, the majority of single parents would be below the poverty line

The growing number of single-parent families also partly explains why the share of French people below the poverty line has tended to increase since the beginning of the 2000s. The poverty rate in single-parent families with more than one child indeed exceeds 40%.

And it would be much higher if these single parents did not benefit from public assistance (family allowances, APL, RSA, activity bonus …) to increase their initial income.

The Dress estimates that without this financial support from the state, 61.3% of single-parent families with more than one child would live below the poverty rate. This safety net is therefore essential, but at the same time it is also costing the State more and more because the proportion of families concerned is increasing.