Family transformed in changing Britain

The huge social changes sweeping through 21st-century Britain are revealed today in a fascinating snapshot.

Latest official figures paint a picture of a rapidly ageing nation of some 60 million people where families are getting smaller and are started much later in life.

They show how the traditional "nuclear" family of mother, father and 2.4 children is fast being replaced by smaller units of broken families with an average of only 1.75 children.

The figures also highlight how traditional family norms are rapidly breaking down.

Last year more than 40 per cent of children were born outside marriage, suggesting that in the near future only a minority of parents will be married.

There has been yet another increase in the number of marriages ending in divorce. Doomed marriages are also ending more quickly.

One of the most startling findings of today's figures from the Office for National Statistics is that women, particularly the childless, tend to overestimate their future fertility, believing they can safely delay parenthood until their careers have taken off.

The figures show that only half the women who tried to start a family in their thirties managed to do so within six years.

Those who delay having children are more likely

to be in the top 25 per cent

of earners. The proportion of babies born to women over 30 has increased from 30per cent in the Sixties to 44per cent last year.

Claire Brown, chief executive of Infertility UK, said: "People need to be aware of the effects of age on fertility. Once you get to the age of 35 it does drop and at 38 or 39 it drops quite dramatically.

"Most people

assume they are fertile and it comes as a shock when they have a problem.

"Emotionally it has been likened to a bereavement and there is an element of shock.

" Women can get depressed because everywhere they go there are children.

" Some women feel guilty that they have left it until later - but they shouldn't."

She added: "Most people need to have a job or career to survive and it is right that they want to

have a good life for their family." Ken Dowell of Care Fertility Group, the UK's largest independent provider of fertility services, said it was often a surprise for women to find it hard to conceive.

Mr Dowell said: "It can be very difficult for some women to accept that by their late thirties their fertility is declining.

"We know female fertility declines from late twenties.

"We hear women say 'I'm fit, healthy, I go to the gym and look after myself '. Sadly, that doesn't stop the deterioration of egg quality and a woman's age is one of the most important factors in allowing a couple to conceive."

Last year in England and Wales, 41.4 per cent of births were outside marriage, a figure that has increased steadily from just 10 per cent in the Seventies.

A quarter of all births last year were to couples who lived together but were not married.