Number of stay-at-home mothers plummets by 25% in 15 years

The number of mothers who stay at home to bring up their children has dropped by a quarter in 15 years, it was revealed yesterday.

There are now barely more than two million stay-at-home mothers – less than one in eight of all women bringing up children, researchers say.

The trend towards more working parents comes despite poll findings which say seven out of ten would prefer for one of them to stay at home.

The latest analysis points to blunt financial causes for the decline. The research found that couples on average think they need an income of £31,731 before they can afford for a mother to leave work and bring up the children.

But the average male income is only £28,464, it said.

The report for uSwitch.com said that the choice of becoming a housewife and full-time mother has now become a "luxury".

Its consumer director Ann Robinson said: "Economic factors are taking awaythe choice for many young families today. As a result, both parents and children are losing out.

"We need to recognise that some parents would prefer to stay at home to look after their children, even if only during the early years. This is all about parents having a say in how they raise their families."

Labour's political and academic critics have for years levelled the accusation that mothers of young children no longer have a choice about going out to work.

Ministers have tried to encourage mothers to return quickly to work.

On top of increased maternity pay and more flexible work conditions, they have introducedhavpaternity leave to try to persuade fathers to stay at home while mothers go back to work.

The uSwitch paper, based on estimates gleaned from the Government's Office for National Statistics and on a poll by YouGov of nearly 2,200 adults, found there are now 2.04million stay-at-home mothers compared with 2.7million in 1993.

The drop – of 24 per cent – will be followed by further falls, it said. It predicted there will be only 1.98million mothers at home by 2010.

Falling numbers of women staying at home have not been balanced by a jump in the ranks of stay-at-home fathers. There are, the report said, 197,000 fathers looking after children full-time, compared with 125,000 in 1993.

The research found that 29 per cent of babies under a year old have both parents out at work, and 44 per cent of children under two have both parents out at work.

According to official figures, the proportion of children under five whose parents both work passed the 50 per cent mark in the early years of the decade.