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Ireland’s Long Run Social Development and Vulnerabilityopportunities for young people and adults are developed in Chapters8 (social inclusion) and 10 (continuous improvement and learning)of this report.2.2.6 Social DiversityDuring the 1990s, Ireland continued to become a more diversesociety. Changes proceeded apace with regard to family formationand structure, while an increase in immigration has brought anotably greater cultural diversity to Irish cities and towns. Thissection describes these changes. The policy issues arising are dealtwith later (Chapter 8).Changes in household formation and family type have importantconsequences for the economy, the labour market, and the welfaresystem (NESC, 1999). Overall, the shift is towards a greaterdiversity of family forms, with individuals through their life spanpossibly moving through a variety of family forms.Between the Census of 1986 and that of 1996, one-personhouseholds increased from 18 per cent of all private households to21 per cent, and households comprised of childless couplesincreased from 11 per cent to 13.6 per cent. The two fastest growingcategories of households, thus, were households without children.There was an increase of one percentage point in the proportion oflone-parent households; they constituted 11 per cent of all householdsin 1996, an absolute increase of 27,500. As a proportion of allfamilies with children under 15 years, families headed by a loneparent made up 13.8 per cent of households in 1996 as compared to7.2 per cent in 1986. Data from Labour Force Surveys supplementthat from the 1996 Census. The former estimate that lone parentsincreased by over 18 per cent in the period 1992 to 1997, with anincrease of over 30 per cent in the numbers with dependent childrenaged under 15 years. 5 The increase in numbers is reflected in thenumber of lone parents/separated spouses in receipt of social5. Both the Census and the Labour Force Survey can underestimate the numberof lone parent families, as they exclude some families who do not head theirown households e.g. those living with their parents.79