You asked
I am trying to obtain information on how many separated families (families where the mother and father live at separate addresses) there are in the UK?
How many families are there where children split their time between 2 addresses?
I am looking for an indication of the number of step parents/blended families in the UK.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry about separated families in the UK.
Our Families and households in the UK: 2016 release is based on data from the Labour Force Survey.
Separated families cannot be defined from survey data because we do not collect information about relationships outside of the household. Children are most likely to be interviewed at the household that they spend the majority of their time.
For example if a child lived with their mother and their father lived elsewhere in another household we would not know about the relationships between those two households if one of the households were selected for interview.
We have done some analysis of stepfamilies using census data and about children with a parental second address. The data used in these analyses are for England and Wales, you would have to contact Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and National Records Scotland about similar data for their respective countries.
When accessing any of our files please read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us on pop.info@ons.gov.uk.