Transcript

MARK COLVIN: It seems the traditional Australian family made up of mum, dad and the kids is on the wane, with fewer than 40 per cent of families now fitting that description.

A new report shows Australian families are increasingly diverse. There are more couples without dependent children and lone-parent families are becoming more common.

At the other end of the spectrum, the research also shows fewer elderly people are going into nursing homes.

Natasha Simpson reports.

NATASHA SIMPSON: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has a complex definition of family, but basically it's two or more people related by blood, marriage, including defactos, adoption, step or fostering, who live in the same house.

But whatever the definition, the shape of Australian families is changing.

A new report published by the Institute of Family Studies gives a snapshot of Australian families. It's author, Professor David de Vaus, says the percentage of families made up of a couple and children slid from almost 50 per cent in 1976 to less than 40 per cent in 2001.

DAVID DE VAUS: In terms of the old family model, the traditional family of mum, dad and the kids, they represent about just under 40 per cent of all families. But most children spend most of the time in that family, so mum, dad and the kids family is still by far the dominant way of raising children.

NATASHA SIMPSON: Some of the big changes include an increase in lone parent families, up from just over seven per cent in the late '60s to close to a quarter of families with dependent children last year.

There's also been a rise in couples without dependent children, whether they're yet to have kids or their children have already left home.

Professor de Vaus says it's got a lot to do with increasing choice.

DAVID DE VAUS: Whilst there was a fairly clear cut set of family stages that an individual would go through and they had to go through those in an order of, you know, getting together then married then setting up house then having children and so forth – the order in which people do those things has changed and it's much more up to an individual to make their decisions about whether they will partner, when they'll partner, when they'll have children, whether they'll have children and so forth.

NATASHA SIMPSON: And what are the ramifications of those changes for policy in Australia?

DAVID DE VAUS: Well what it means that because people have much greater choice in what they do we'll end up with a much wider range in family structures and family forms. So what that means for policy is you can't direct a policy assuming just one standard family type of mum, dad and the kids.

So if people are choosing for both parents to work or whether both parents have to work then we need to make sure that there's appropriate, affordable childcare available. If you've got more older people wanting to live on their own then we probably want to make sure there's adequate community support for those older people.

NATASHA SIMPSON: There's also been a jump in the number of people who don't even really qualify as a family because they live alone. A quarter of households now consist of just one person.

But what surprised Professor de Vaus most was a substantial fall in the number of elderly people living in nursing homes and hostels. Fifteen years ago a quarter of over-80's women lived in nursing homes. That fell to 15 per cent by 2001.

DAVID DE VAUS: Older people are somewhat healthier than they were in the past, but probably more importantly has been the success of the aging and place policies whereby supports, community support, government supports are provided to enable older people to continue to live in their own home.

NATASHA SIMPSON: But it seems statistically at least, some things never change, with mothers still spending more time than fathers doing housework and caring for children.

DAVID DE VAUS: Mothers and women are doing still far more than you would expect, certainly far more than 50 per cent of it. Even when fathers and mothers are working both full time, the mothers are still doing a lot more childcare and a lot more domestic work than the fathers.

MARK COLVIN: Professor David De Vaus, ending Natasha Simpson's report.