EUROPE: Family rules within Cyprus households

Cyprus has among the highest proportion of households with children – 116,300 from a total of 326,800 – in the European Union, according to latest data.

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Among the EU Member States, Ireland recorded the highest proportion of households with children (39%), ahead of Cyprus, Poland and Slovakia (all 36%) and Romania (35%).

In contrast, the lowest shares were registered in Germany and Finland (both 22%), followed by Sweden (23%), Austria (25%) and Bulgaria (26%).

Share of households with three or more children highest in Ireland, lowest in Bulgaria.

In 2018, there were 223 million households in the EU and almost one third (65 million) of these households had children living in them.

At EU level, almost half of all households with children (47%, or 30.6 million households) consisted of only one child, while 40% of households (25.8 million) had two children, and 13% (8.5 million) three children or more.

The highest share of households with three or more children was registered in Ireland (26%), followed by Finland (19%), Belgium and France (both 18%), the Netherlands (17%) and the United Kingdom (16%). At the opposite end of the scale, less than 10% of households in Bulgaria (5%), Portugal (7%), Spain and Italy (both 8%), Lithuania (9%) and Latvia (10%) had three or more children in them.

Highest proportion of single-parent households were in Denmark and the lowest in Croatia

At EU level, 15% of households with children were single-parents households.

Denmark (29%) and Estonia (28%) had the highest proportions of single-parent households among households with children, ahead of Lithuania and Sweden (both 25%), Latvia (23%), the United Kingdom (22%) and France (21%).

In contrast, the lowest proportions of single-parent households were in Croatia (6% of all households with dependent children), Romania (7%), Greece, and Slovakia and Finland (all 8%).