6224.0.55.001 - Labour Force, Australia: Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families, Jun 2011 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/09/2011   
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Contents >> Couple Families

COUPLE FAMILIES

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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 includes couples with or without children or dependants, gay partners and other variations.

In June 2011, there were:
    • 2.3 million opposite-sex couple families with dependants
    • 3 million opposite-sex couple families without dependants
    • 33 thousand same-sex couple families

Column Graph: Shows how the percentage of employed couples decreases with age of youngest dependant


COUPLE FAMILIES WITH DEPENDANTS

The proportion of couple families with dependants in which one or both partners were employed was 94% in June 2011

The father was employed in 90% of all opposite-sex couples with dependants. In 93% of these cases, the father was employed full-time.

The mother was employed in 67% of opposite-sex couple families with dependants. The proportion where the mother was employed full-time has remained steady at 28%. This proportion increases with the age of the youngest dependant, from 18% for mothers of 0–4 year olds to 42% of mothers of young people aged 15–24.


Column Graph: Shows how the percentage of full-time employed mothers in couples decreases with age of youngest dependant


COUPLE FAMILIES WITHOUT DEPENDANTS

In June 2011, 57% of couple families had no dependants.

Both partners were 45 or older in 71% of couple families without dependants. Of those, 58% were families where at least one partner was employed.



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