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Almost a fifth of children – including a third of Muslim children – live in households where no adult works, according to new figures from the 2001 census, writes Amy Taylor.
 
Two in five Muslim children are also subjected to overcrowding, compared to an average of just over one in 10, and one in eight Muslim children live in a household with no central heating.

Figures also reveal above average rates of poor adult health among black and ethnic minority groups, and that unemployment rates among Bangladeshi and Pakistani men are more than twice as high as those of their white British equivalents.

The latest census data also reveals that nearly a quarter of children now live in single parent families, nine out of 10 of which are headed by women. Further movement away from the traditional family is shown by more than one in 10 children living in a step-family, and only two thirds of children living with both natural parents.

 Other figures show that nearly 4,000 people aged 90 or over are providing 50 or more hours of unpaid care a week, and over a quarter of a million of people aged 16-74, who are permanently disabled or sick, provide some unpaid care.

www.statistics.gov.uk/census