Family Structures In Australia Essay

Family structures within our Australian society vary from family to family, each family is individual and made up of members of different ages, genders and personalities; each family will have one or more backgrounds living within the same household and religions also vary from household to household. Family structures in australia are continually changing statistically, more families are being formed via adoption, through same gender parents, blended families.

According to the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics), from the year 1986, to the year 2001, the sum of one-parent families in Australia has significantly increased by 53%. This increase partakes in many factors such as increasing divorce rates, births to young couples who separate

A census was taken in 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006 & 2011 which stated the families whom had 1, 2, 3 or 4 & more children (ages 0-17) living dependently on the parents.

(image and information sourced from AIFS)

Families with one to two children constantly remained the most common across the five years each census was recorded; this combined accounted for the 77% of families in 1991, and increasing to 80% in 2006 and 2011.

Around 40% of all families with children under 18 years had two children in this age group, while the proportion with only one child in this age group increased from 37% in 1991 to 40% in 2011.

In 2011, 15% of these families had three children under 18 years old (down from 17% in 1991), and 5% had four or more children in this age group (down from 6% in 1991).

This census only accounted for families whom had children under 18 years of age and therefore did not account for families whom had children already having reached adulthood regardless if they lived in the family household or not. In addition, some of the families would have been "incomplete" as at the time of the census having been taken, some women may have had their newborn babies born either between or after the 2011 census having been