The report analyses Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) and Census data to provide insights into the diversity of families in Australia and how their experiences differ according to their family type. It highlights the many variations in experiences of these families in relation to health, finances, housing, education and community and underlines the need for policymakers and practitioners to design systems, laws and services with the full range of family experiences in mind. 

Key findings

• Most laws and practices are based on the assumption that families are couple parent families. In fact, one in every three Australian children lives in a family which does not conform to this assumption. 
• While 69% of Australian children lived in couple parent families, more than 30% lived in single parent families, step and/or blended families, multigenerational, and foster and other kin families. 
• First Nations families are more likely to be multigenerational, step and/or blended, sole parents, or foster and other kin
  families than non-First Nations families. 
• Multigenerational families have the highest use of informal care (74%) for children before they start school. Step and/or blended families (35%) have the lowest.
• Young people who don’t live in couple parent families are less likely to be participating in work or study.
• Family type affects wealth and ability to manage economic pressures, and the cost of living crisis in Australia is impacting families unequally. 
• Around one in 10 people over 15 years in couple parent families live with ill-health and disability. The rate is much higher for
  other family types.
• Two thirds of women say they do more than their fair share of parenting and child rearing while a similar percentage of men
  report that they do their fair share.