Families and households, 1 January 2003

Akershus (near Oslo) was the county with the highest number of cohabitant couples with children on January 1st, 2003, with 10 400 couples. But the percentage of cohabitant couples compared to other families with children was still under the average in Norway. In the counties from Sør-Trøndelag and north it was four of ten families cohabitant couples with children, while the average of the country was two of ten, and one of ten in Vest-Agder, Aust-Agder and Rogaland (Southwest of Norway).

More married couples without children

The amount of married couples without children continues to increase, while the number of married couples with children continues to decrease. On January 1^{s t}, 1989 there were 571 400 married couples with children in Norway, on January 1^{s t}, 2003 there were 480 200. In the same period of time the amount of childless married couples had increased by 37 700, to 351 700.

Two children for married couples

Married couples have most often two children, 42 per cent of them. And 33 per cent of them have only one child.

For cohabitant couples there were almost as many couples with two as with one child, 43 and 41 per cent respectively.

There are more married than cohabitant couples with three and more than three children.

One reason may be that many cohabitant couples marry after a while and qualify as other type of family. And cohabitation is quite a new phenomenon, so it will take some time for these couples to get as many children as married couples.

Increasing number of partners

The amount of partners continues growing since the law for partners was introduced in august 1993.

On January1st, 2003 there were 1 036 registered partners with and without children in Norway. 73 of the partners had children. Partners are still more common in Oslo, both with and without children.

Family statistics

Since 1999 we publish a reduced version of family statistics. We give only figures of married couples with/without children and cohabitant couples with at least one child. Almost 1.6 million people qualify as "Other type of family". The reason for this reduction in family statistics is giving a better quality.

Children in family statistics are children of any age registered living at home.

Other sources

Find more information about families, households and children in Norway in our website: http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/02/01/20/

Tables:

• Table 1 Families, by type of family. 1960-2003
• Table 2 Families, by type of family. Children under 18 years of age. 1974-2003
• Table 3 Persons, by type of family. 1 January 2003
• Table 4 Families, by type of family and the number of children living at home. 1 January 2003
• Table 5 Families, by type of family and number of children living at home. Children under 18 years of age. 1 January 2003