by STEVE DOUGHTY, Daily Mail

For the first time in recorded history, more than half of British women over the age of 16 are unmarried.

As marriage continues to decline in popularity, increasing numbers of men and women in their twenties and thirties are choosing to live alone, according to Government figures released yesterday.

Many of the unmarried women are single mothers, with more than a quarter of families now led by a single parent.

Married women make up less than 50 per cent of the female population - leaving a majority single, divorced or widowed. And more than one in ten of the age-group who would at one time have been forming families are now living by themselves, according to the findings of the General Household Survey.

Just 54 per cent of men over the age of 16 are married. Around 12 per cent of men and women between the ages of 25 and 44 live alone - more than twice as many as in the late 1980s and six times as many as in the early Seventies.

Many women are choosing their careers above marriage and families. Others are casualties of the trend towards cohabitation in which, statistically, relationships are more likely to break down.

For the first time in years, the number of single fathers has also risen. They now make up just under one in 30 of single parents.

The survey, which is carried out regularly, is aimed at discovering facts about the way we live that are not revealed through traditional records and censuses.

It involved 19,000 people being interviewed in 8,500 homes last year by the Office for National Statistics. The findings also reinforce current concerns highlighted by the Government's Chief Medical Officer about heavy drinking among women.

But the most startling figures are those which demonstrate the breakdown of the traditional family, an occurrence often linked with poverty, difficulties for children and social breakdown.

The decline in the proportion of married women has been astonishing. In the late Seventies, almost three-quarters of all adult women were married. By 1985, that figure had fallen to just over two-thirds.

Ten years ago, 61 per cent of women were married. By 1996, the figure had dropped to 57 per cent and two years later it stood at 53 per cent.

Nearly one in ten of all men and women are currently living together in unmarried relationships. More than a quarter of women in their 20s are cohabiting.

The continuing erosion of the twoparent family means that nearly a third of all homes - 32 per cent - are now occupied by just one adult.

While the number of older people living alone has actually fallen, with fewer than half the over-75s now occupying single households, the big rise in singles is among young adults.

The survey showed that the average home now contains 2.3 adults, compared to 2.91 in the early Seventies.

Only one home in five is occupied by a couple with children, compared with 31 per cent in 1979 and 25 per cent in 1991. Single parent households make up seven per cent of all homes - a level that has remained steady since 1993.

Couples now head just under three-quarters of all families.

Other key findings included a rise in binge drinking among women, especially younger ones.

Nearly a quarter of women had drunk more than three units of alcohol on a single day in the week before the survey was carried out.

The consumption of alcohol among women between the ages of 16 and 24 went up from an average of 11 units a week to 12.6 units between 1998 and 2000.

Middle class women are heavier drinkers, with 24 per cent drinking more than the Government's recommended levels compared to 21 per cent in ' manual households'.

The survey also revealed a boom in home entertainment and Internet use over the past two years, despite the onset of economic uncertainty.

Some 45 per cent of homes now have computers, while only 34 per cent owned them in 1998. And 40 per cent of homes contained satellite, cable or digital television last year, compared with just 29 per cent in 1998.

The survey also found more people taking out company or private pensions. Two-thirds of full-time workers now have them.