Men from poorer income families are twice as likely to be single in their early 40s than those from richer backgrounds, research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies reveals.
The report “Intergenerational income persistence” stated: “Individuals from higher-income families are significantly more likely to have a partner in adulthood and, if that partner works, more likely to have a higher-earning partner than those from lower-income families.”
Female earnings are an increasingly important component of household income and so these trends significantly reduce the household incomes of men who grew up in poor families compared with those of men who grew up in rich families.
The IFS’s research was based on a long-term study which surveyed people born in 1970 and followed them as they got older.
It found that more than a third of men aged 42 from the poorest fifth of families did not live with a partner in 2012.
That compared with only a seventh from high-income backgrounds.
The paper stated men from disadvantaged backgrounds experienced lower rates of marriage and higher rates of divorce.
It also looked at men in couples. It found that the partners of those from richer backgrounds earned more than 70 per cent more than the partners of men from poorer families.
At the end of life the poor fare badly too – there huge differences in longevity of the inhabitants of many deprived areas of Glasgow compared to leafy Surrey..
stephanie.hawthorme@ft.com
