Families in Europe

Abstract

Analysing data from the European Social Survey, in this article we try to capture the main features of European families. Accounting for the changing trends of the last forty years in family arrangements, practices and values we also discuss some theoretical and methodological issues raised by the exercise of comparing countries. General configurations like family size, composition of the household, living arrangements and marital status are identified and analysed by clustering European countries. The insertion of men and women in the labour market, fertility rates and the hours of work of parents are another central focus of discussion. Our results tend to contradict some stereotypes. The majority of Europeans are formally married or living together, conjugal disruption is transitory for the divorced and the separated tend to return to conjugality. With modern ideals family is, for all European countries and with very similar averages, the most valued dimension of personal life.

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