In June 2016, there were an estimated 6.7 million families living in Australia; this continued a steady increase of around 100,000 families per year from June 2012. The number of families with dependants (including children under 15 and dependent students aged 15–24 years) remained steady at 3.1 million, and the number of families with children under 15 years at 2.5 million. (Datacube 1)



The vast majority of families were couple families (84%). Of the 5.7 million couple families, 2.5 million (44%) had dependants living with them in 2016.

The next largest group were one parent families (14%). Of the 948,800 one parent families, in 2016 almost two out of every three had dependants living with them (65%); 83% of these were headed by single mothers.

There were an estimated 120,300 other families in June 2016. Other families represented only 2% of all families living in Australia. (Datacube 1)

The following flow chart summarises this Australian Families structure.





Totals may not exactly match the sum of components due to rounding.