Marriage may be out of fashion but it still confers considerable benefits to adults and children, according to a comprehensive study on the state of the family.

The Office for National Statistics has published definitive proof that married couples live longer, enjoy better health and can rely on more home care in old age than their divorced, widowed, single and cohabiting peers. Children who live with their married parents are also healthier, and can expect to stay in full-time education for longer, whatever their economic background.

It has always been thought that marriage had a positive effect on health, but the findings are the most solid evidence yet that, despite rapidly changing social attitudes and an end to the stigma of divorce and lone-parenting, marriage is still good for you.

It will add fuel to an already heated political debate on the family. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has promised tax cuts for married couples, and to change the tax credit system so that couples with children receive as much as single parents.

Labour has said that the money should be directed to the poorest families regardless of whether they are married, divorced or headed by single parents.

The ONS study, Focus on Families, suggests that married couples will be outnumbered by cohabiting couples and single-parent households within a generation if present trends continue. It found that the number of cohabiting couples had risen by 65 per cent in the past ten years to 2.3 million, while single-parent families increased by 8 per cent to 2.6 million. Over the same period, the number of married couples fell by 4 per cent to 12.1 million.

When the data on family structure was merged with health statistics, it emerged that widowed men and single mothers had the worst health, suffering more acute and chronic conditions. Married people of both sexes enjoyed the best health.

Mortality rates are also greatly affected by marital status. The mortality rate among single men under 34 is about 2½ times higher than that for young married men. Widowed and divorced men over 80 have a mortality rate one third higher than married men. Single, widowed and divorced older women all have higher mortality rates than their married peers.

Children who have married parents, no matter their social background, are more likely to be in full-time education at 17 than any other group.

Children’s risk of long-term illness was highest in the care system, and in single-parent households. It was lowest in married-couple households.

The benefits of marriage are also marked when it comes to care in illness and old age. Across all age groups, the provision of unpaid care by married adults for sick or elderly relatives and disabled children was higher than for cohabiting couples.

Experts said that that had profound implications for government plans, since the present system relied on unpaid relatives providing most care.

Mike Murphy, Professor of Demography at the London School of Economics and one of the authors of the report, said he had expected that society’s greater acceptance of divorce and single-parenthood would have eroded the benefits of marriage, on health in particular, but this did not appear to be so.

“The evidence of both mortality and morbidity data suggest the link between health and the family remain strong,” Professor Murphy said.

“Some of the benefits of marriage can be explained by wealth, as the marriage rate is higher in higher socio-economic groups. But all the evidence shows that there is something in marriage itself that is a benefit.”

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who heads the party’s Commission for Social Justice, said that the ONS study confirmed his findings. “In the two reports we have published we have noted that marriage confers enormous benefits on adults and children. There is a higher rate of break-up among cohabiting couples with young children compared to their married equivalents, and higher rates of crime, drug abuse and debt are strongly lined to family breakdown,” he said.

“The decline of marriage is a difficult social trend to reverse. It would be too simplistic to argue that a tax break will reverse this trend and we have made 29 recommendations on the subject, including more education on how to sustain relationships.”

Most of the data used by the ONS predates the introduction of civil partnerships in 2005. In any case, the effects of civil partnerships on health have yet to filter through.

Family fortunes

–– The number of cohabiting couples is increasing, up by 65 per cent in the past decade to 2.3 million. In the same period one-parent families have increased by 8 per cent to 2.6 million

–– Marriage is on the decline. The number of married couples fell by 4 per cent to 12.1 million in the past decade. In 2005 the number of Britons marrying fell to its lowest level in 111 years

–– Two thirds (65 per cent) of children live with married parents, compared with 72 per cent in 1996. 12 per cent live with cohabiting parents, up from 7 per cent in 1996, and 24 per cent live with lone parents, up 3 per cent in ten years.

–– Stepfamilies with children now comprise 38 per cent of cohabiting couples but only 8 per cent of married couples

–– 78 per cent of girls living in married couple households are in full-time education compared with 69 per cent of girls in lone mother households, 66 per cent in married-couple stepfamilies, 65 per cent in lone father households, 64 per cent with cohabiting parents and 63 per cent in cohabiting stepfamilies

–– Single men aged between 30 and 59 have a mortality rate 2.5 times higher than married men. Single women fare slightly better, although have a mortality rate twice as high as married peers

Source: ONS

Times Recommends

• Tree stump 'shows image of Virgin Mary'
• BBC drops Strictly judge for younger model
• Trafalgar Square 'reduced to a spectacle'