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3. Families with children constitute 39 per cent of the population

At the end of 2016, there were 569,700 families with underage children in Finland. A family with underage children has at least one child under the age of 18 living at home. Families with underage children make up 39 per cent of all families. The percentage has been falling at a steady rate for the past few years. In all, 39 per cent of the population live in families with underage children, older siblings included.

The number of families with underage children fell by 1,794 from the previous year. The drop was around 300 lower than in the year before. The number of families with children under the age of seven decreased by 3,000 families from the year before.

Table 5. Families with underage children by type in 1950–2016

Year	Total	Married couple with children	Cohabiting couple with children	Mother and children	Father and children	Registered partnership with children	Persons in families with underage children	Families with children aged 17 or under	Families with children of all families, %	Population belonging to families with children, %
1950	599 329	515 115	..	74 319	9 895	..	..	1 341 330	64,4	..
1960	678 046	601 542	..	67 381	9 123	..	..	1 536 464	65,4	..
1970 1)	677 035	602 076	5 800	61 173	7 986	..	..	1 345 089	58,7	..
1980 2)	688 732	572 142	32 100	74 839	9 651	..	..	1 163 926	53,9	..
1990	640 637	490 999	59 900	78 948	10 790	..	2 437 592	1 135 686	46,9	48,8
2000	612 627	398 892	95 120	103 984	14 631	..	2 317 291	1 116 687	43,7	44,7
2010	582 360	356 943	107 368	101 946	15 836	267	2 200 603	1 068 554	40,0	40,8
2011	580 547	354 567	107 738	101 963	15 940	339	2 185 130	1 061 710	39,7	40,5
2012	578 409	352 159	107 751	102 013	16 081	405	2 176 199	1 058 664	39,5	40,1
2013	575 683	347 817	109 104	102 152	16 163	447	2 166 385	1 056 606	39,1	39,7
2014	573 566	343 428	110 069	103 115	16 430	524	2 158 867	1 055 763	38,9	39,5
2015	571 470	339 342	110 891	103 972	16 661	604	2 149 905	1 053 444	38,7	39,2
2016	569 676	334 861	111 307	105 693	17 164	651	2 139 737	1 051 285	38,6	38,9
%
1950	100,0	85,9	..	12,4	1,7	..	..	..	..	..
1960	100,0	88,7	..	9,9	1,3	..	..	..	..	..
1970	100,0	88,9	0,9	9,0	1,2	..	..	..	..	..
1980	100,0	83,1	4,7	10,9	1,4	..	..	..	..	..
1990	100,0	76,6	9,4	12,3	1,7	..	..	..	..	..
2000	100,0	65,1	15,5	17,0	2,4	..	..	..	..	..
2010	100,0	61,3	18,4	17,5	2,7	0,0	..	..	..	..
2011	100,0	61,1	18,6	17,6	2,7	0,1	..	..	..	..
2012	100,0	60,9	18,6	17,6	2,8	0,1	..	..	..	..
2013	100,0	60,4	19,0	17,7	2,8	0,1	..	..	..	..
2014	100,0	59,9	19,2	18,0	2,9	0,1	..	..	..	..
2015	100,0	59,4	19,4	18,2	2,9	0,1	..	..	..	..
2016	100,0	58,8	19,5	18,6	3,0	0,1	..	..	..	..

1) The breakdown of the census by type of family has been revised on the basis of interview surveys. (Aromaa, Cantell & Jaakkola: Avoliitto (Consensual Union), Research Institute of Legal Policy 49, Helsinki 1981).
2) The breakdown of the census by type of family has been revised on the basis of the 1981 register-based material on families and cohabiting couples.

3.1 One-fifth of families with underage children are families of cohabiting couples

The most common family with children is still that consisting of a married couple and children. Fifty-nine per cent of the families with children were families of married couples. This is the form of family with children which has seen a steady decline, both in absolute and relative terms, but other family forms with children are still far from its numbers. The numbers of all other types of families with children grew over the year. At the end of 2016, there were 111,300 families of cohabiting couples with underage children in Finland, which equals 20 per cent of all families with underage children. Compared with 2015, the number of families of cohabiting couples increased by 416.

Nowadays 58 per cent of firstborn children are born outside marriage. The share has slowly increased, by eight percentage points since 1997, when one-half of firstborn children were born outside marriage. Forty-five per cent of all children born in 2016 were born outside marriage.

The number of families formed by a mother and children has grown by 1,700 compared with 2015. At the end of 2016, families formed by a mother and children numbered around 106,000. Over one-fifth (22%) of all families with children are one-parent families (mother and children or father and children). Families with children whose regular composition is a father and children are still quite rare. There are only 17,200 such families. Families composed of a registered couple and children under the age of 18 are even rarer, numbering around 651. The relative growth in the number of these families was eight per cent compared with the previous year.

Figure 5A. Families with underage children by type of family and age of mother/single carer father in 2016

Figure 5B. Families with underage children by type of family and age of mother/single carer father in 2016, relative breakdown

3.2 Of parents of reconstituted families, 48 per cent were married

A reconstituted family refers to a family that has a non-common child under the age of 18, i.e. the child has, in a sense, received a new social parent. The concept is more broadly interpreted in everyday talk: the weekend families born in consequence of diverse family splits are referred to as reconstituted families. However, statistics on families must be compiled according to the child’s permanent place of residence. A child cannot be included in two families in the statistics. Divorced fathers and mothers with whom children only stay during weekends and holidays are not included in family statistics unless they have formed a new family.

There are 51,600 reconstituted families representing nine per cent of all families with underage children. The number of reconstituted families has grown slowly since 1990 when the first statistics concerning them were made, but in the past ten years, their number has more or less stayed on the same level, and even fallen slightly in some years. From 2015, the number of reconstituted families diminished by 615.

Usually, the child of a reconstituted family is the mother’s and has obtained a new social father. Altogether, 48 per cent of the parents of reconstituted families are married to one another and 52 per cent cohabit. If a common child is born to a reconstituted family, the parents usually marry, but otherwise they mostly cohabit. Families with “your children, my children and our children” living in the same household are still relatively rare, numbering 928.

Table 6. Reconstituted families 1990–2016

Year	Total	Married couple	Cohabiting couple	Reconstituted families as a proportion of families with children, %	Mother's children	Father's children	Common children	Children aged 17 or under in reconstituted families	Non- common children as a proportion of children of all families, %	Children in reconstituted families as a proportion of children of all families, %
1990	44 426	21 808	22 618	6,9	50 713	7 443	30 089	88 245	5,1	7,8
1995	42 460	19 197	23 263	6,6	50 322	7 637	29 242	87 201	5,0	7,6
2000	47 288	21 315	25 973	7,7	58 550	8 541	30 931	98 022	6,0	8,8
2005	52 204	24 722	27 482	8,8	66 228	9 746	32 465	108 439	7,0	10,0
2010	53 265	26 612	26 653	9,1	66 508	10 417	33 057	109 982	7,2	10,3
2011	53 361	26 698	26 663	9,2	66 423	10 473	33 169	110 065	7,2	10,4
2012	53 018	26 838	26 180	9,2	65 873	10 519	33 263	109 655	7,2	10,4
2013	52 709	26 316	26 393	9,2	65 196	10 761	33 611	109 568	7,2	10,4
2014	52 207	25 673	26 534	9,1	64 859	10 720	33 588	109 167	7,2	10,3
2015	52 251	25 266	26 985	9,1	64 810	10 901	33 513	109 224	7,2	10,4
2016	51 636	24 877	26 759	9,1	64 280	11 045	33 096	108 421	7,2	10,3

3.3 Number of families with two children has grown slightly

When examining the number of children in families, allowance must be made for the family’s stage of life. For example, families which have only had their firstborn are processed as one-child families in the statistics, as are families with only their last-born living at home. Family statistics thus represent a cross-section of the situation at a given moment, i.e. the sizes of families in the country at a given point in time, and not the eventual numbers of children in families. Hence, it is difficult to compare different points in time because of the uneven age structure of the population.

The clearest long-term change in the number of children in families is the fall in the number and relative proportion of families with at least four children since the 1960s (Table 7). After the mid-1980s, the number of families with at least four children started to grow, although over the 2000s, the growth has been slow. The number of families with one child has been falling steadily. In contrast, the decrease in the number of families with two children has halted, their number has even grown slightly. The number of families with at least four children remained at the same level in 2016 as in the year before. At the end of 2016, there were 449 families with at least ten underage children.

Table 7. Number of children in families with underage children 1950–2016

Year	Families total	Number of children in families				Average number of children aged 17 or under
		1	2	3	4 -
1950	599 329	234 682	173 092	95 100	96 455	2,24
1960	678 046	253 285	202 408	112 446	109 907	2,27
1970	677 035	287 649	222 276	100 358	66 752	1,99
1980	688 732	333 812	264 944	70 100	19 876	1,69
1990	640 637	286 549	250 317	81 163	22 608	1,77
2000	612 627	268 369	230 758	85 025	28 475	1,82
2005	591 528	255 549	225 879	81 775	28 325	1,83
2010	582 360	254 551	222 596	76 860	28 353	1,83
2011	580 547	253 995	221 643	76 367	28 542	1,83
2012	578 409	252 986	220 806	75 969	28 648	1,83
2013	575 683	250 318	220 656	75 725	28 984	1,84
2014	573 566	247 882	220 487	76 033	29 164	1,84
2015	571 470	245 871	220 610	75 844	29 145	1,84
2016	569 676	244 159	220 801	75 489	29 227	1,85
%
1950	100,0	39,2	28,9	15,9	16,1	..
1960	100,0	37,4	29,9	16,6	16,2	..
1970	100,0	42,5	32,8	14,8	9,9	..
1980	100,0	48,5	38,5	10,2	2,9	..
1990	100,0	44,7	39,1	12,7	3,5	..
2000	100,0	43,8	37,7	13,9	4,6	..
2005	100,0	43,2	38,2	13,8	4,8	..
2010	100,0	43,7	38,2	13,2	4,9	..
2011	100,0	43,8	38,2	13,2	4,9	..
2012	100,0	43,7	38,2	13,1	5,0	..
2013	100,0	43,5	38,3	13,2	5,0	..
2014	100,0	43,2	38,4	13,3	5,1	..
2015	100,0	43,0	38,6	13,3	5,1	..
2016	100,0	42,9	38,8	13,3	5,1	..

The average number of children in a family with underage children is not directly comparable at different points in time, because the sizes of the age groups at various stages of family life vary. This does not give exactly unambiguous information either, since the childbearing age has continuously risen. In the 2000s, the average number of children in a family with children has remained nearly unchanged.

The recent trend can be seen in Figure 6, which shows the average number of underage children living at home according to the mother's age. The fact that women giving birth have become older is visible in that mothers aged over 40 have the same number of children in each age group as in the previous year and clearly more than in 1995. In turn, mothers aged under 35 have the same number or slightly fewer children than in the mid-1990s.

Figure 6. Average number of children in families with underage children by age of mother in 1985, 1995, 2015 and 2016

Source: Population and Justice Statistics, Statistics Finland

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Updated 24.11.2017