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State of the Nation 

Quotes and Statistics about Contemporary Britain

Families

In a recent MORI poll, 24 per cent of British children complained that their parents were not always there when they needed them.
In another survey, 49 per cent of parents did not know where their children were, whom they were with or what they did after school, at weekends or during the holidays.
The absence of a caring parent has a profound effect on teenagers.
In a Prince's Trust survey of young gang members, 58 per cent said they had joined a gang to acquire a sense of identity, while a quarter were in search of someone to look up to.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215389/Abandoned-parents-betrayed-schools-young-boys-turning-criminal-gangs-protection-sense-belonging.html#ixzz0S8Fw1AOy

In just one day in Inner London there can be up to 100 family courts dealing with family breakdown cases.
Source: "Family breakdown is now a national tragedy" by Mr Justice Coleridge Daily Telegraph 17th June 2009

The number of marriages in 2006 was the lowest for 110 years. The Office of National Statistics estimates that 45% of the marriages that took place in 2008 will end in divorce, that's despite the divorce rate now being at it's lowest rate for almost 30 years.
£500 million is spent on supporting homeless families with children every year.
Source: Joseph Rowntree Trust "Poverty in the UK"

50% of the 85,000 households counted as newly homeless had dependent children.
Source: www.crisis.org.uk/policywatch/pages/england_trends_over_time.html


Young people

Last year, classroom disruption was running at record levels, with schools sending home 2,200 children every day.
More than 200,000 were expelled or suspended in 2007 for violent, threatening or aggressive behaviour.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215389/Abandoned-parents-betrayed-schools-young-boys-turning-criminal-gangs-protection-sense-belonging.html#ixzz0S8Ge2jS6

Researchers who studied 15 year olds in the same location in Scotland in 1987, 1999, and 2006 found that distress levels in teenage girls had risen alarmingly.  Over the 20 years of the study incidences of anxiety, depression, panic attacks etc had increased from 19% to 44% for girls and from 17% to 21% for boys.
According to figures published in 2009 by the Office of National the number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales has risen slightly. There were 42,900 conceptions in women under 18 years of age; including 8,200 in girls aged under 16 years. 
"If people's lives are rubbish they just think a baby is going to make it better." 
"If their Mums and Dads don't care about them they think 'I won't be lonely anymore if I have a baby'."
Quotes from Many Teen Mums are Just Lonely by Rob Broomby http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7815650.stm

An online survey in 2009 of 1,000 teenagers by the National Volunteers Service found:
71% believe they do not live in a fair society
59% believe the world is becoming a worse place
78% respect their elders
75% are happy with the relationships they have with their families
85% said their friends never carry knives
69% did not agree that drugs are OK for recreational use
Source: "Goodie hoodies" www.vinspired.com

50% of children who receive custodial sentences will have been in or had substantial social services involvement.
Almost 90% of children locked up for their offending will re-offend.
Source: "Breaking the Cycle" www.barnardos.org.uk

In 2009 more than one in five GCSE exams (21.6%) were awarded an A* or A.
The number of schools targeted under the "National Challenge" where fewer than 30%  of the pupils achieve 5 good GCSE grades has declined from 5 in 10 schools to 1 in 10 schools over the last 12 years.
Source: "Record Breaking GCSE Results" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8223855.stm

In the 2007 report on the well being of children by the UNICEF the UK was the worst performing country than any of the other 21 nations of the industrialised world. Particularly bad scores were given for 5 of the 6 dimensions of well being: young people's sense of their own well being, education, health and safety, peer and family relationships, behaviours and risks, and material well being.
Source: "UK Children Shown to have Poorest Quality of Life" Church Times 16th February 2007


Poverty and debt

Nearly 2/3 of the public think that poverty is an inevitable part of life or due to a person's own laziness or lack of willpower.

In 2006-7: 22% of the UK population was in poverty = 13 million people
               30% of children were in families in poverty = 3.9. million children
               19% of pensioners were in poverty = 2.1 million people
Source Joseph Rowntree Trust www.jef.org.uk

Average household debt in the UK is ~ £9,180 (excluding mortgages). This figure increases to £21,355 if the average is based on the number of households who actually have some form of unsecured loan.
Average household debt in the UK is ~ £58,290 (including mortgages).
Average owed by every UK adult is ~ £30,190 (including mortgages).
Source: Debt Statistics October 2009 from http://www.creditaction.org.uk/debt-statistics.html