The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated March 2009:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many families there were with (a) one, (b) two, (c) three and (d) four or more dependent children in each of the last 10 years. (264170)
Estimates of the number of families with dependent children are available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Table 1 shows figures for the UK for the last ten years.
Figures for 2009 are not yet available.
Thousand Number of dependent children in family One Two Three Four or more Total 1997 3,071 2,947 986 319 7,323 1998 3,102 2,976 966 317 7,361 1999 3,135 3,001 932 322 7,389 2000 3,063 2,992 986 303 7,344 2001 3,143 3,003 919 308 7,374 2002 3,170 2,991 927 293 7,381 2003 3,130 3,018 904 298 7,349 2004 3,213 3,031 886 276 7,405 2005 3,378 2,932 883 266 7,458 2006 3,346 2,961 877 272 7,456 2007 3,382 2,941 874 271 7,468 2008 3,432 2,911 878 266 7,488 Source: Labour force survey household data, April to June quarters, not seasonally adjusted.