Data extracted in November 2024.
Planned article update: December 2025.
Highlights
In 2022, 70.8% of people living in households with children in the EU reported to be happy all or most of the time – compared to 59.8% living in households without children.
In 2023, almost one quarter of all households in the EU included dependent children.
In 2023, more than half of all households with children in the EU (63.6%) were couples with children, while single parent households accounted for 12.4%.
People reporting to be happy all or most of the time, by household composition, 2022
This article presents data about household composition and its relationship with happiness across the EU.
Family structures in the EU countries vary, reflecting cultural and normative differences, as well as other factors. Children are most likely to grow up in a household with 2 adults, but other types of households (e.g. multigenerational families) and single-parent households are also common. This article also describes the relationship between subjective well-being and family composition.
The data used in this article are derived from the EU labour force survey (EU-LFS) and the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC).
Key findings
- In 2023, 23.8% of all households in the EU included dependent children, slightly down from 26.5% in 2013.
- The share of households with dependent children, varied from almost a third in Sweden and Finland (around 29%) to less than a sixth in the Baltic countries (15.4% in Latvia and Lithuania and 16.7% in Estonia).
- Most households with children in the EU (63.6%) comprised a couple with children. This rate varied from more than three quarters in Sweden (76.5%) to less than half in Latvia and Denmark (45.1% and 44.8% respectively).
- On average, in the EU, 11 percentage points (pp) more people living in households with dependent children (compared to those without) reported being happy most or all of the time in the 4 weeks prior to being surveyed. This varied from 23.0 pp in Croatia, 19.9 pp in Bulgaria and 18.7 pp in Lithuania to almost no difference in Luxembourg (-0.1 pp).
Almost one quarter of all households in the EU included dependent children in 2023. This share has been gradually decreasing over recent decades from 27.3% in 2009 to 26.5% in 2013, and to 23.8% in 2023 (see Figure 1).
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(%)
Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhnhtych)
Between 2013 and 2023 the share of households comprising a single adult without children in the EU increased by 4.3 pp, from 32.4% in 2013 to 36.7% in 2023. All other types of households show a slight, relative decrease. In particular, the share of couples with children decreased from 16.8% to 15.1%, and the share of other types of households with children decreased from 6.5% to 5.7% (Figure 2).
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Figure 3 shows how in different EU countries the household structures vary. In 2023, more than half of all households were single-adult households without children in Estonia and Lithuania. In 14 other EU countries, the share of single-adult households without children was above one third. At the other end of the spectrum, in Slovakia this share was 10.8%.
1.png)
In 2023, the second most common household composition in the EU was couple without children. This made up 29.1% of all households in Sweden, 29.0% in Finland and 27.8% in Germany. At the other end, such households accounted for 15.4% of all households in Latvia and in Lithuania and 16.7% in Estonia.
Composition of households with children
If we zoom in on the households where children live (Figure 4) – which comprise, as previously seen 23.8% of all households – we see that most households with children consisted of a couple with children: 63.6% at EU level. Among EU countries the highest share of such households can be seen in Sweden, Finland and Greece (76.5%, 72.6% and 72.4% respectively). In other EU countries, this share is around half or less (50.5% in Bulgaria, 50.2% in Estonia, 45.1% in Latvia, and 44.8% in Denmark).
2.png)
In 2023, the highest share of single-parent households was in Estonia (35.0%); this share was more than a quarter also in Lithuania (28.4%) and Latvia (25.3%). The lowest shares of single-parent households were in Slovakia (2.9%), Greece (4.3%), Slovenia (4.4%) and Croatia (4.8%).
In some EU countries, ‘other types of households’, where, for example, several generations live together are quite usual. Such households made up 42.0% of households with children in Slovakia, 40.5% in Bulgaria, 39.4% in Croatia and 39.3% in Malta. In countries where the share of children living in ‘other types of households’ is high, the share of single-parent households was generally low. This was the case in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Malta, Romania, Spain, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia. The share of ‘other types of households’ among households with children was the lowest in Finland (12.6%), followed by Estonia (14.9%) and the Netherlands (15.8%).
Happiness and household composition
If we look at a subjective happiness indicator in relation to the household composition in the EU, in 2022, 70.8% of people living in households with dependent children reported being happy in the past 4 weeks all or most of the time, compared to 59.8% of people living in a household without dependent children.
Among the latter type of households, 65.4% of those living in households with 2 adults reported feeling happy all or most of the time, followed by 63.1% of those living in households with 3 or more adults. 50.3% of people living in single-person households reported being happy all or most of the time (in the past 4 weeks), 30.8% some of the time; and 15.2% reported that they experienced happiness a little/none of the time (Figure 5).
2.png)
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_pw09)
A relatively high percentage of people living in households with dependent children reported being happy all or most of the time in almost every EU country – as can be seen in Figure 6. Difference between the share of those in households with and without dependent children reporting to be happy all or most of the time can be as big as 23 pp in Croatia, 19.9 pp in Bulgaria and 18.7 pp in Lithuania. On the other hand, there was virtually no difference in Luxembourg (-0.1 pp), and a relatively small difference in Malta (2.7 pp) and Ireland (3.2 pp).
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(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_pw09)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
The data used in this article are derived from the EU labour force survey (EU-LFS) and the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC).
The first survey covers a range of statistics on the number, characteristics and typologies of households. Under the specific topic ‘Family composition and household structure‘, the EU-LFS presents statistics on household composition, the number and size of households, and the estimated age that young people leave the parental home. In this survey ‘other types of households’ may refer to - households with two adults who are not couple; - households with three or more adults. For example, parents with a child aged over 18, multigenerational households, siblings living together etc. The survey only covers individuals living in private households and excludes those living in collective or institutional households.
Figures on subjective well-being are derived from EU-SILC, namely the 6 yearly rotating module on well-being, collected for the first time in 2022. The variable ’being happy’ refers to a general state of well-being and implies a more sustained or overall condition of happiness over time. It was also collected in the EU-SILC ad hoc modules on well-being in 2013 and 2018.
Context
EU policies targeting children In 2021, the European Commission Strategy on Children’s rights and the EU Child’s guarantee was adopted. This comprehensive EU policy framework was adopted by the Commission to ensure the protection of rights of all children, and secure access to basic services for vulnerable children. The Commission put forward actions to better protect all children, to help them fulfil their rights and to place them right at the centre of EU policy making. Many of them are already in place.
EU policies targeting subjective well-being
Measuring well-being has an inherent appeal. Promoting the well-being of people is one of the principal aims of the EU, as set forth by the Treaty on European Union. In the EU, a broad range of outcomes is considered when evaluating the objectives of social and economic policy, including subjective measures around the quality of life. Many international, EU and national bodies report on subjective well-being and publish associated reports going beyond gross domestic product (GDP) as the overall measure of societal performance.
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- LFS series - Specific topics (lfst)
- Youth (yth), see:
- Youth population (yth_demo)
- Youth social inclusion (yth_incl)
- Youth - culture and creativity (yth_cult)
- Youth participation (yth_part)
- Youth volunteering (yth_volunt)
Thematic section
Methodology
- Households statistics — LFS series (ESMS metadata file — lfst_hh_esms)
- EU-SILC methodology