The traditional family based around a married couple is now the preserve of a minority with the number of single-adult households overtaking the number of couple households with dependent children, the census shows.

Figures from the official count show that married and civilly partnered couples, for the first time, now make up under half (47%) of all households – down from 50.9% in 2001. In the decade to 2011, the number of married people stayed constant at 21.2m but the number of single adults rose by more than 3m to 15.7m.

In the same period, the number of lone parents rose by 400,000 and the number of people who had been divorced or had a partnership dissolved rose by 600,000.