Friday, December 13, 2002
Northern Ireland out of wedlock births on the rise
A story released today by the Online.ie reports that according to a British government report, one in three of all births in Northern Ireland is now outside marriage.
The report also showed that over half of all new babies in Belfast are born to unmarried mothers.
With more people deciding to live together, the marriage rate is falling, while divorces grow in popularity, new figures showed.
Robin McRoberts of leading relationship counseling organization, Relate NI said there were a number of reasons why the number of children born outside marriage had reached an all-time high.
"A lot of it is down to changing attitudes in society. Much of the stigma associated with living together and having children outside marriage has been forgotten." said McRoberts.
"If you go back just a few decades it was regarded as a real embarrassment for families when a woman had a child outside marriage but that seems to be a thing of the past."
McRoberts, Relate NI's director of services, said the expense of marriage and property was also forcing many couples to live together rather than get married.
"Attitudes are changing and many people are now happy to get married in civil ceremonies or simply to live together." he said.
The number of divorces granted in Northern Ireland has also continued to rise, from 100 per year in the early 1960s to around 2,300 in each of the last 10 years.
