19 Jul 2010

Commonest future family: couples without children

8:14 pm on 19 July 2010

The number of couples without children is predicted to overtake two-parent families to become the country's most common family type by 2011.

Overall, Statistics New Zealand says, the number of families is forecast to rise from an estimated 1.17 million in 2006 to 1.46 million in 2031, with couple-without-children families accounting for most of the growth.

Such families are picked to increase from 468,000 in 2006 to 721,000 by 2031.

Statistics New Zealand says most of those couples are baby- boomers born during the 1950s to early 1970s whose children will have left the parental home.