Twenty years of having babies across different countries of the UK: How has parents' partnership status changed?

In the past 20 years in the UK, the partnerships that people are in when they have a baby have changed dramatically. In all four constituent countries of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) the proportion of live births that occur within marriage has decreased. It has become much more common for unmarried women to have babies (nonmarital births). However, not all nonmarital births are the same. Births outside of marriage might be to a couple who are living together but not married (cohabiting), or to single women (who may or may not register the birth jointly with their partner). The composition of nonmarital births has changed over time and in different ways between the UK’s countries. To explore this, we have used birth registration data to examine live births in different types of partnerships from 1998 to 2017. As having children outside of marriage has become the norm across the UK, this policy briefing unpacks the nature of these partnerships.