Britain is the European capital of broken homes as worst teenage pregnancy and single-parent household rates revealed



A horrifying picture of the extent of Broken Britain has been painted by an international report which exposes our moral failure on family values.

The study found we have the worst record on teen pregnancy in Europe and more children living in one-parent families than any other European country.

More of our single mothers are unemployed and on benefit than anywhere else in the continent, largely because we hand out so much in benefits.



Labour legacy: The teenage pregnancy rates in Britain is double that of France. (Picture posed by models)



Britain’s rates for divorce and illegitimate births are among the highest in the Western world, and our mothers are among the oldest, putting their health and that of their baby at risk.

Critics said the UK is paying the price for its promotion of sex education to ever younger children and for the fact that, since the permissive society of the 1960s, so few value the institution of marriage.

The report, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which represents industrialised nations, is the first time that Britain’s poor record has been illustrated so starkly. It shows:

Our teenage pregnancy rate is the worst in Europe and the fifth worst in the Western world;

The proportion of children living in single-parent families is the worst in Europe and behind only the United States;

The proportion of lone parents out of work is the highest in Europe and the second in the industrialised world;

The divorce rate is the fourth highest in Europe;

The number of illegitimate births is the sixth highest in the continent.

Norman Wells, of Family and Youth Concern which researches the causes and consequences of family breakdown, said: ‘These figures paint a gloomy picture of a society that values the short-lived pleasure of casual sexual relationships more highly than the lifelong commitment signified by marriage.



‘Those who imagine that the answer to high teenage pregnancy rates, family fragmentation and the state dependency culture is to be found in a form of sex education that values all types of relationships equally and sees nothing wrong with young people having a series of casual sexual relationships are deluded.

‘If our long-term desire for young people is that they should enjoy a stable and satisfying family life, it isn’t sex and relationships they need to learn about.



'Rather, they need to develop the character qualities of commitment, faithfulness, perseverance and patience that lie at the heart of an enduring marriage.’

OLDEST MUMS IN EUROPE: WOMEN WAITING UNTIL 30 TO HAVE A CHILD

Women in Britain wait longer to have their children than in any other country in Europe, the OECD report revealed.

The average age of a mother having her first child is almost 30 because of the numbers waiting until their late 30s or even their early 40s to start a family.

Older mothers are more likely to suffer complications in pregnancy, while their children are at higher risk of genetic disorders such as Down’s syndrome.

The average age at first birth is 29.8 – compared to 25.2 in the U.S., 28.5 in France and 30.7 in New Zealand, the only country in the Western world where the age is higher than in Britain.

Figures published earlier this year showed that some 27,000 babies were born to women over 40 last year in Britain, a number which has doubled over the past two decades.

OECD report author Willem Adema said: ‘Over the years, in the 60s, 70s and 80s, Europe made leaps and bounds in the progress of female education attainment.

‘When they had done that, women decided they wanted a career just as men do.

'But that can clash with their desire to be a mother – so their response in the first instance is to postpone childbirth until as late as possible.

‘What we are seeing is women saying I want to establish myself in my career – and once that is done it will be easier to have children.’



The information was contained in the OECD’s Gender Brief, compiled earlier this year. It contains a series of graphs comparing social indicators across the organisation’s 32 members.

It shows that for teenage pregnancy, the rate in Britain is more than double that of France. On divorce, some 26 are granted in the UK per 10,000 inhabitants every year. The divorce rate in Ireland is just eight.

The report reveals that in 2007, some 43 per cent of births were out of wedlock, double that in Spain.

Willem Adema, economist in the OECD’s social policy division, said: ‘What we see in the U.S. and in the UK, but stronger in the UK, is that you have a group of low-income groups where a lot of teenagers have a child.



'This is either because they don’t know about the risk when engaging in sexual activity or they care less than in other countries.

‘In the UK, income inequalities are wider than in other countries.



'So if you are in a low income group, your prospect of getting into a higher group is fairly limited – so maybe they think: Why bother, why not just have a child?

‘And it goes on through the generations: a lot of teenage birth mothers have children who go on to have births in their teenage years as well.’

The study reveals that a massive 23 per cent of British children up to the age of 14 live in single parent families, behind just the U.S. on 26 per cent.

And 48 per cent of single mothers in Britain are unemployed, the highest rate in the OECD apart from Turkey.