6224.0.55.001 - Labour Force, Australia: Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families, June 2017 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 04/12/2017   
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COUPLE FAMILIES

As noted in What is a Family?, couple families are based around a couple relationship between two people who are either married or in a de facto partnership and usually resident in the same household. They include couples with or without dependants, and same-sex partners.

In June 2017, there were:

  • 5.7 million total couple families (consistent with 2016).
  • 3.2 million couple families with children or dependants, including children under 15 and dependent students aged 15–24 years (continuing the annual increase increase of around 40,000)
  • 3.1 million couple families without children under 15 or dependent students (representing little change from 2016).
  • 2.6 million opposite sex couple families with dependants (including children under 15 and dependent students aged 15–24 years) and 57,900 same-sex couple families (up from 52,400 in 2016). (Datacube 1).
  • 1.7 million couple families with children or dependent students where both parents were employed (representing little change from 2016). (Datacube 9)

Graph Image for TOTAL COUPLE FAMILIES, Employment status-By age of youngest dependent child, 2017

Footnote(s): Does not include persons with undetermined labour force status

Source(s): TOTAL COUPLE FAMILIES, Employment status-By age of youngest dependent child, 2017-6224_0_JUNE_2017_GRAPH_2



TOTAL COUPLE FAMILIES WITH DEPENDANTS

Most couple families with dependants had at least one employed parent, at 94% in June 2017. The majority of couple families with dependants had both parents employed (65%), of which 1.3 million had at least one child aged less than 15 years. (Datacubes 1, 3)

There were 470,300 couple families which had a youngest dependent aged 15–24 years living with them, which represented 8% of all couple families. (Datacube 8)

In 2017, the wife/partner was employed in 70% of all couple families with dependants. As in previous years, the percentage of mothers employed full-time in couple families increased with the age of the youngest dependant, from 23% for mothers of 0–4 year olds to 41% of mothers of dependants aged 15–24 years. In 38% of couple families with dependants, the mother was employed part-time. This pattern has remained consistent from 2013-2017. (Datacube 7)

Graph Image for PERCENTAGE OF MOTHERS IN TOTAL COUPLE FAMILIES, Employed full-time-By age of youngest dependent

Source(s): PERCENTAGE OF MOTHERS IN TOTAL COUPLE FAMILIES, Employed full-time-By age of youngest dependent-6224_0_JUNE_2017_GRAPH_3



TOTAL COUPLE FAMILIES WITHOUT DEPENDANTS

In June 2017, 55% of couple families had no dependants. (Datacubes 1,10)