A Family

Families provide emotional, physical, and financial care and support to their members and are often the basis on which government assistance is determined and administered. Australians have traditionally experienced three main living arrangements over a lifecycle: living with parents, living with a partner (for some of this period with children), and living alone in old age if that partner died. Now and into the future, living arrangements throughout a lifecycle may also include living alone or in a group household before perhaps forming a long-term partnership, or living as a lone parent or alone after divorce or separation. These changes in living arrangements and family characteristics are the outcome of various demographic and social trends, such as declining fertility, increased rates of divorce, and longer life expectancy.