Is the nuclear family universal nowadays?

Nuclear family consist a husband and wife and one or more children, own or adopted, it is defined by Murdock, and according to him, he believed that the nuclear family is 'a universal social grouping.'

There are statistics shows the development of diversity of family, such as cohabiting, lone-parent, reconstituted,gay and lesbian families. In Britain，26% of families with dependent children were headed by lone parents in 2000(Social Trends,2002), 24% of non-married men and women under 60 were cohabiting in 2005.(Social Trends,2007) and etc.In Asia, around 20% of families are extended families.
The figures are increasing around the world, since people are tolerating the other forms of family.Governments are start to admit all type of family especially in Western countries, for example, the Civil partnership Act in 2005 in Britain which grant same-sex couple identical rights and responsibilities as the opposite-sex couples do.Many believes we are now live in the postmodern era. According Stacey, she sees family diversity as a reflection of postmodern society.There is no one family form to which everyone aspires.There are no generally agreed norms and values directing family.

All evidences seem to prove that nuclear family is not the dominant type of family.However, living in a nuclear family is a phase that most people, as children and adults, go through in the course of their life.The majority of British children still live in couple-headed households, up to 76% in 2006.(Social Trends, 2007).Most Asian households are based on nuclear families. Most importantly, the idea of the Universal Nuclear Family is so widely accepted due to the attention receives in the media. And the Governments seem to be more preferable to nuclear family, as the nuclear family can be a nurturing environment in which to raise children as long as there is love, time spent with children, emotional support, low stress, and a stable economic environment.So, although there is an increasing diversity of family, nuclear family is still universal now.