There are now 227,000 stay-at-home fathers, an increase of 10 percent on the previous year.

The number of stay-at-home fathers reached a record high last year, new figures show, as families saw a rise in female breadwinners.

Men now make up nearly 10 percent of those who care for children while their partner goes out to work, official employment statistics revealed today.

There were 227,000 men staying at home to look after family between September and November last year, a rise of 19,000 compared to the same period in 2011 and the highest increase since figures began in 1993.

Experts suggested that the shift was down to men losing their jobs in the recession and either failing to find new employment or deciding that it did not make financial sense for them to return to work if their partner was a high earner.

Overall more than 2.3m people are classed as “economically inactive” because they are at home looking after children, the Office for National Statistics said.

The number of women staying at home saw a small rise over the period to reach just over 2.1m, but has been higher in the past.

The ONS said the figures reflected a growing trend where it was more common for the man to stay at home while his spouse went out to work.

A recent European Commission report said couples where both the man and woman earn money “lost ground” during the economic downturn in favour of female breadwinners, who increased their share to almost 10 percent.

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