Family and household projections to 2031

From Statistics NZ

The latest subnational family and household projections provide an indication of possible future changes in the number and composition of families and households.

Highlights of the latest release project that:

• All 16 of New Zealand's regions will have more couple-without-children families and one-person households in 2031 than in 2006.*

• There will be a continued decline in average household size for all regions and territorial authorities, between 2006 and 2031.

• The Auckland region will account for almost half (48 percent) of the national growth in the number of households by 2031.

*‘Couple-without-children’ include:

(a) couples who will never have children,
(b) couples who will have children in the future,
(c) couples whose children have left the parental home.

Note that first projection, that all 16 regions will have more one-person households.....but we keep focusing our ministry on families, married couples, youth, children.

Photo, David Salafia

PS: This year is Census Year - in just a month's time. It's a date I was looking forward to, in many ways, when all the 2006 Census figures that were becoming increasingly unuseful would be replaced. And now my role here as Research and Resource Assistant is coming to an end....pooh! :)

Out of place?

Many churches focus on family, family, family. Which means that couples (married couples, of course) are the prime base for everything that goes on.

Which leaves the singles out. Single men barely exist in churches - they're regarded as a bit strange, and possibly to be avoided. Marry them off quickly if you can.

As for single women. Hmmm. How do they fit in? Awkward phrases like 'left on the shelf' still linger in the 21st century air. Well, at least they're good for teaching Sunday School: safe, (safer than the men - they're positively dangerous in Sunday School, and even if they're safe they have a tendency to make the kids hyper).

You may disagree and say all this is generalization. Of course it is, but there's a hint of truth in it. And what started me thinking about it, in part, was an article in The Guardian: Another Year, same old witch-hunt. Another Year is the name of the latest Mike Leigh movie, which features a married couple and a single woman, and the article reviews the movie in part.

But what is more interesting about the article is its focus on single women, in which it states that half of women under 35 live alone. Now, this is an English stat, and I'm not sure that I'd take it as gospel (considering its source); nevertheless it indicates that there is an issue, and things may be similar here in New Zealand.

To quote: One survey found that half of its sample [of married couples] never had single women as visitors, and 19% knew no single women at all. Casual disregard for this social group goes unremarked. Our prime minister insists that marriage must be prioritised and rewarded. The last government repeatedly identified "hard-working families" as its abiding concern. In a world centred on cosily coupled units, leftover women labour under an enduring disadvantage. When they're not ignored completely, they're expected to provide tireless but unrecompensed support for people who matter more than them, as babysitters, carers or shoulders to cry on.

Note that the Government regards married couples as their prime focus too.

So what's the point of this post? Single women in our churches: how do they find a 'place' - they find a place? Or is there such an emphasis in every respect on couples that single people feel out of place?