However, this observation does not invalidate the overall conclusion that, within the divorcing population, the proportion of childless couples has increased in recent years.
They were nearly always elderly divorced or childless women, with no children to raise or with grown families.
But what does seem clear is that childless couples are more free than those with dependent children to decide whether their marriage is best dissolved.
Very few childless elderly men seem to have had any relatives with whom to live in the autumn of their lives.
A similar pattern is found among childless elderly men.
Industrialization and urbanization also meant a higher degree of independence for the childless elderly in some ways.
Those who are older, unmarried, childless and in poor health are least likely to have robust support networks.
Nearly half (47 per cent) of parents lived within a mile of a relative, compared with only one-third (32 per cent) of the childless.
