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3. Thirty-eight per cent of families are families with children

At the end of 2018, there were 561,965 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 38 per cent of all families. The percentage has been falling at a steady rate for the past few years. In all, 37 per cent of the population live in families with underage children, older siblings included. The number of families with underage children fell by 4,277 from the previous year. The number of families with children under the age of seven contracted by 6,929 families from the year before.

Table 5. Families with underage children by type in 1950 to 2018

Year	Total	Married couple with children	Co- habiting couple with children	Mother and children	Father and children	Regis- tered couple with children	Persons in families with under- age children	Families with children aged 17 or under	Families with children of all families, %	Popu- lation belong- ing 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
2017	566 242	330 252 3)	111 065	106 939	17 641	345	2 124 972	1 046 336	38,5	38,5
2018	561 965	324 592 4)	110 648	108 112	18 325	285	2 104 188	1 037 995	38,3	36,7
%
1950	100,0	85,9	..	12,4	1,7	..	..	..	..	..
1960	100,0	88,7	..	9,9	1,3	..	..	..	..	..
1970 1)	100,0	88,9	0,9	9,0	1,2	..	..	..	..	..
1980 2)	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	..	..	..	..
2017	100,0	58,3	19,6	18,9	3,1	0,1	..	..	..	..
2018	100,0	57,8	19,7	19,2	3,3	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) Families of the type “same-sex married couple with children” numbered 388.
4) Families of type “same-sex married couple with children” numbered 500.

3.1 One-fifth of families with children are families formed by cohabiting couples with children

The most common family with children is still that consisting of a married couple and children. Fifty-eight 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 number of families of the type cohabiting couples with children and registered couples with children also decreased. At the end of 2018, there were 110,648 families of cohabiting couples with children in Finland, which equals to 20 per cent of all families with children. Compared with 2017, the number of families of cohabiting couples decreased by 417 families. By contrast, the number of all other types of families with children grew from one year ago. In this examination, the family type cohabiting couple with children only includes families of opposite-sex cohabiting couples because same-sex cohabiting couples have not thus far been deducted programmatically. These type of families with same-sex cohabiting couples with children are in this statistic included in other family types, like one-parent families.

Forty-five per cent of all children born in 2018 were born outside the marriage.

The number of families formed by a mother and children has grown by 1,173 families compared with 2017. At the end of 2018, families formed by mothers and children numbered 108,112. Around one-fifth (22%) of all families with children were one-parent families (mother and children or father and children). Families with children whose regular composition is father and children are still quite rare. There are only 18,328 such families. Even though in these one-parent families the children can officially be registered only at one address, the families can have different practices concerning the custody of the children. Children’s shared residence was examined in the release related to the ad hoc module of the Labour Force Survey in June 2019. According to the survey, in total 63,000 women aged between 18 and 64 had children aged under 15 living in two homes.

At the beginning of March 2017, an amendment to the Marriage Act entered into force, as a result of which part of registered partners changed their partnership into marriage and new registered partners can no longer be formed. Now there are only 285 families formed by a registered couple and children. Compared to the year before, the number of families with registered partners and children diminished by 60. At the end of 2018, there were 500 families of same-sex married couples with children.

Figure 5A. Families with underage children by type of family and age of mother/single carer father in 2018

Figure 5B. Families with underage children by type of family and age of mother/single carer father in 2018, relative breakdown

3.2 Nearly every tenth family with children is a reconstituted family

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. Families of same-sex couples are not taken into consideration in the examination of reconstituted families.

There are 50,700 reconstituted families representing nine per cent of all families with underage children. The number of reconstituted families has grown slowly since the first statistics were compiled on them in 1990. In the past ten years, the number of reconstituted families has remained almost unchanged but in recent years the number seems to have made a downturn. The number of reconstituted families diminished by 598 from 2017.

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 925.

Table 6. Reconstituted families in 1990 to 2018

Year	Total	Married couple	Co- habiting couple	Re- consti- tuted families as a pro- portion of families with children, %	Mother's children	Father's children	Common children	Children aged 17 or under in re- cons- tituted families	Non- common children as a pro- portion of children of all families, %	Children in re- consti- tuted families as a pro- portion 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
2017	51 315	24 690	26 625	9,1	63 798	11 116	33 855	107 769	7,2	10,3
2018	50 717	24 153	26 564	9,0	63 353	11 102	32 170	111 117	7,2	10,3

3.3 Number of families with children decreased regardless of size

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 also 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 the statistics relating to 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 slowed down. Since 2016, the number has again made a downturn. The number of families with one child has been falling steadily. The number of families with two children also continued on the downward trend that started in 2017; the number of these families diminished by 328 from the year before. In 2018, the number of families with three children declined by 1,221 families and families with at least four children has fallen by 267 families. At the end of 2018, there were 407 families with at least ten underage children.

Table 7. Number of children in families with underage children in 1950 to 2018

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
2017	566 242	241 709	220 116	75 326	29 091	1,85
2018	561 965	239 248	219 788	74 105	28 824	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	..
2017	100,0	42,9	38,9	13,3	5,1	..
2018	100,	42,6	39,1	13,2	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 2018, the average age of having the first child was 29.4 and the average age of all women giving birth was 31.1 years. 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 approximately 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, 2017 and 2018

Source: Population and Justice Statistics, Statistics Finland

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Updated 31.01.2020