Nearly 4.6 million Britons expect to start a family in the future but don’t believe they will have a secure job when they do, according to new research from Santander Insurance.

41% of UK adults who expect to become a parent in the future say it’s unlikely they or their partner will have a secure job when they do and 54% expect to start a family before getting married.

44% say it’s unlikely they will be living in a home that is large enough to comfortably raise a child by the time they become a parent.

The survey reveals that 55% of people who hope to start a family in the future expect to do so before becoming a homeowner and 48% say it’s unlikely they will have any household savings by the time they have a child.

65% still expect to have outstanding debts (other than a mortgage) and 83% don’t believe they will have started a private pension at this point.

Santander also questioned parents about which of these building blocks they had in place when they started a family and found that a higher proportion did in the majority of cases. 33% of parents were without a secure job when they had their first child and just 29% did so unmarried. Two thirds of existing parents (55%) didn’t own their home when they had their first child and 37% say they lived in a home that was too small to bring up their child.

Richard Al-Dabbagh from Santander Insurance, said: “Parents are increasingly prioritising having a child over other aspects of life such as home ownership and marriage. The financial commitments involved with all of these things are significant and against a backdrop of squeezed incomes it’s simply not possible for every family to tick every box.

“However, having some form of financial contingency is vital. Parents spend around £540 per month raising a child on average, which is why having some kind of provision in place to support their children if anything should happen to them is so important.”