FOI reference: FOI-2026-3634
You asked
For the purposes of this request, "resident parent" means the parent with whom a child ordinarily resides following parental separation.
Please provide the statistical data held by the Office for National Statistics for the last three calendar years relating to resident parents in the United Kingdom.
I wish to clarify that my request is intended to cover statistical data relating to both resident parents and non-resident parents, rather than resident parents only.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our estimates of people, including parents, living in families and households by presence of children, are created from the household dataset of the Labour Force Survey (LFS). A family and the individuals within it are sampled at an address if they consider it to be their main residence, or they have resided there for at least six months, or they have been absent from the address (which is their main residence) for less than six months. If a child within the family splits their time between two parents' addresses, they are only included at the sampled address if that is where they spend the majority of their time. If they split their time equally between these addresses, the interviewer makes a decision based on a series of questions. For more information, see our Families and households, UK quality and methods guide.
Therefore, "resident parents" would be represented in our Families and household UK dataset. Table 1 of this dataset provides estimates of the number of families by family type, such as couple family (containing two parents) or lone-parent family, with dependent, non-dependent or no children. UK data are available from 1996 to 2025 and are also available at a regional level from 2015. Please note, a "couple" may include a step-parent.
Additionally, "lone parent" does not make any distinction between situations where a child has regular contact and/or partly resides with their other parent and a child who solely resides with and is cared for by one parent.
It is not possible to identify parents whose children live in a separate household from them (non-resident parents) from the LFS data. This is because the LFS does not ask people whether they have any children who live in a separate household and only accounts for those living in the household.
We also conducted analysis on this topic using 2021 Census data. Our People with second addresses, England and Wales: Census 2021 analysis found the most common type of second address in 2021 was “Another parent or guardian’s address”, which would have been selected for children whose parents were separated or lived apart. This was selected by 1.1 million people in 2021 (1.77% of the usual resident population).
If you would like these data presented differently, we may be able to create a custom output for you. Such services are subject to legal frameworks, resources and agreement of costs, subject to our charging policy. Please contact pop.info@ons.gov.uk to discuss.