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5935
Only 62 per cent have married parents
statistikk
2002-11-06T10:00:00.000Z
Population
en
barn, Children, children at home, parents' cohabitation arrangements, single parents, step parents, siblings (for example brother/sister), half brother/sister and step brother/sister, only childChildren, families and households, Population
false

Children, 1 January 2002

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Only 62 per cent have married parents

The number of children living with both parents has decreased 16 per cent points the last 13 years. At the same time the number of cohabitants has increased.

Since the first time Children Statistics were published in 1989, the number of children with married parents has decreased from 78 per cent to 62 per cent. The fact that there are fewer children with married parents does not necessarily mean that fewer children live with both parents, because cohabitation has become more usual. If we put together married and cohabitant couples we have 76 per cent of the children living with their both parents, 83 per cent in 1989, while the number of children that does not live with their both parents has increased from 18 to 24 per cent.

Children 0-17 years of age , by type of family. 1 January 2002
  Married parents Cohabitants Mother Father Mother, step-father Father, step-mother Others Total
1989 78 5 12 2 3 0 1  100
1991 75 6 14 2 3 0 1  100
1993 71 8 15 2 3 0 1  100
1995 69 10 15 2 3 0 0  100
1997 67 12 16 2 3 0 0  100
1999 65 13 16 2 4 0 0  100
2000 64 14 16 2 4 0 0  100
2002 62 14 17 3 4 1 0  100

Children 0-17 years, by age and family type. 1 January 2002

The number of children of cohabitant parents has increased from 5 to 14 per cent in these years. And the number of children registered living with their mother has increased from 12 to 17 per cent, or 25 500 children. The situation has not changed for the other types of families. Many children registered living only with their mother or fathers are living with two adults, because either of them has got a new couple.

There are 29 100 children under a year living with married parents and 21 100 with cohabitants. The differences increase with the children's age. 33 500 17 years old have married parents, while 1 200 have cohabitant parents. It looks like most of the cohabitants will marry in the end, but we cannot forget that cohabitation is a quite new way of living and there are very few of them with older children.

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