UK families reduce in numbers due to financial pressure

The rising of costs of bringing up a child is causing the average UK family to reduce in numbers.

New research from Aviva finds that parents spend around £271.499 on each child up to the age of 21.

This has led to 66 per cent of parents deciding they can’t afford to have more children, even if they wanted to.

Of the 1000 parents with children under the age of 21 questioned for the research, 58 per cent of parents with only one child revealed they were not planning to have more.

The average family size has fallen from 2.0 to 1.7 in the last 40 years.

The standard 2.4 children family has not existed since 1937.

Families with just one child now account for 20 per cent of two-parents families in the UK, rising from 16 per cent in 1972.

But according to the study, though the cost of living is rising, some parents are spending a whopping £1,000 a month on each of their children.

A total of 51 per cent of families polled say their children are demanding expensive products.

But a similar proportion of families felt it was important to match and better their friends and neighbours with the latest trends.

Head of protection marketing for Aviva, Louise Colley says: “When we consider bringing up children, people often think about the big ticket items such as university fees or childcare. But it’s also the smaller things such as school trips and music lessons – plus essentials like food and clothes – that really build up the costs. Even for parents who budget very carefully the financial pressures are tremendous, and as Government benefits are being scaled back, more and more families are feeling the pinch.”