AUSTRALIAN FAMILIES

In June 2015, there were an estimated 6.6 million families living in Australia; this reflected a steady increase of around 100,000 families per year from June 2012. Over the same period the number of families with dependants increased to 3.1 million, and the number of families with children under 15 years to 2.5 million. (Table 1)



The vast majority of families were couple families (83%). Of the 5.5 million couple families, 2.5 million had dependants living with them in 2015.

The next largest group were one parent families (15%). Of the 970,800 one parent families, in 2015 almost two out of every three had dependants living with them (64%), and 82% were single mothers.

There were an estimated 138,100 other families in June 2015, reflecting an increase of 42,200 from June 2012. Other families represented only 2% of all families living in Australia. (Table 1)

The following flow chart summarises this Australian Families structure.