A review of recent Norwegian research on fertility and co-residential unions

This report provides an overview of studies using Norwegian data in the areas of fertility and co-residential relationships.

Despite of a decline in recent years, fertility in Norway is still higher than in most other European countries. The review of the recent Norwegian literature on fertility shows that there is a close relationship between fertility and various factors, such as socioeconomic resources. Several studies have, for instance, investigated associations between education and fertility timing and level. In recent years there have also been several studies of different aspects of family life and co-residential relationships and fertility. The relationship between fertility and family policy has also been a key part of the Norwegian fertility research.

Most Norwegians still marry, but marriages occur later in life compared with the situation in the 1960s and 1970s. This trend is partly due to the increasing popularity of unmarried cohabitation. Most recent studies on union dynamics take this development into account by including cohabitation, and several studies have investigated differences between cohabitation and marriage. Research on union dynamics has gradually also included immigrant-background individuals and same-sex couples. But there are still few Norwegian studies on cohabitors’ partner choice and union dissolution among cohabiting couples.