L ife in UK The daily family life Manners and Etiquettes Holidays and Festivals Sports Medias Music Places you must visit The family The family in Britain is changing. The once typical British family headed by two parents has undergone substantial changes during the twentieth century. In particular there has been a rise in the number of single-person households, which increased from 18 to 29 per cent of all households between 1971 and 2002. By the year 2020, it is estimated that there will be more single people than married people. Fifty years ago this would have been socially unacceptable in Britain. In the past, people got married and stayed married. Divorce was very difficult, expensive and took a long time. Today, peoples views on marriage are changing. Many couples, mostly in their twenties or thirties, live together (cohabit) without getting married. Only about 60% of these couples will eventually get married. In the past, people married before they had children, but now about 40% of children in Britain are born to unmarried (cohabiting) parents. In 2000, around a quarter of unmarried people between the ages of 16 and 59 were cohabiting in Great Britain. Cohabiting couples are also starting families without first being married. Before1960 this was very unusual,but in 2001 around 23 per cent of births in the UK were to cohabiting couples. People are generally getting married at a later age now and many women do not want to have children immediately. They prefer to concentrate on their jobs and put off having a baby until late thirties. The number of single-parent families is increasing. This is mainly due to more marriages ending in divorce, but some women are also choosing to have children as lone parents without being married. The Housing Most people in England live in urban areas. Towns and cities are spreading into their surrounding environmentto cope with the increase populations. In England, an average of 7,000 hectares of farmland, countryside and green space were converted to urban use every year between 1985 and 1998.This is almost the equivalent size of 9,600 international football pitches! Who owns the house? More people are buying their own homes than in the past. About two thirds of the people in England and the rest of Britain either own, or are in the process of buying, their own home. Most others live in houses or flats that they rent from a private landlord, the local council, or housing association. People buying their property almost always pay for it with a special loan called a mortgage, which they must repay, with interest, over a long period of time, usually 25 years. Types of the house E ngland has many types of homes. In the large cities, people often live in apartments, which are called flats. In most towns, there are streets of houses joined together in long rows. They are called terraced houses. The main types of houses in England are: Detached (a house not joined to another house) Semi-detached (two houses joined together) Terrace (several houses joined together) Flats (apartments) Bungalow and Oast HouseA bungalow is a house with no stairs, on one level. This bungalow has a room in the loft( 阁楼 ). It is called a chalet bungalow.Many people in England live in buildings which were once built for something else other than a home. Oast ( 烘炉) Houses were not originally a building where people lived. They were part of farm buildings and were where hops (a plant from which beer is made) were layed out and dried.The most popular type of home in England is semi-detached (more than 27% of all homes), closely followed by detached then terraced. How much does a house cost? A big problem in England is the rising cost of houses. In 1989 first-timebuyers paid an average of around 40,000, but by 2001 this had more than doubled to 85,000. Research by Halifax shows that there is no town in Britain where average property prices are currently below 100,000.Greater-Londonistoppingthetableforthehighestaverage prices, which are likely to push through the 300, 000 barrier in the third quarter of the year. The cost of housinginEnglandhasincreasedmuchfasterthanpeoples wagesmakingitimpossibleforfirst-timebuyerstogeton the housing ladder unless they are in especially well-paid jobs,areabletocalluponrichrelativesorareprepared to buy jointly with friends. 2003 Average wage per year: 20,000Average house price: over 120,000.2007 Average wageper year: 23,244 Average house price: 184,924CostofHousesin2005:AverageCost: 182,920Detached: 282,157 Semi-detached: 169,074 Terraced: 139,122 Flat: 168,571CostofHousesin2007:Average Cost: 184,924Detached: 285,697Semi-detached: 170,650Terraced: 143,512Flat: 174,052 The Transportation R oads and motorways areBritainsprimarydomestictransportroutes.Thereare some225,000miles(362,000km)ofroadsinBritain.Travel by car, van or taxi is by far the most common means of transport,accountingfor85percentofpassengermileage in