Households
General information about households and family structure
In the Nordic countries there is a consensus on the definitions and identification of households and their composition. The statistical information that is presented on this page reflects this.
Most countries define households using four categories for individuals within a household: Married, cohabiting, or single parent being either male or female in origin. One exception is Sweden where no distinction is made between married and cohabiting individuals in data.
Additionally, Faroese data is entirely absent from the statistics now, and data for Iceland and Norway is absent from the earliest 4-5 years.
Families with children
During the past two decades the rate of families with single parents has increased in most of the Nordic countries. In both Denmark and Finland, the rate has increased by some percentages from 19 per cent to 24 per cent.
During the same period the rate has been shifting in Iceland and declining in Norway and Sweden.
Being a country with few households in general, changes in Icelandic figures can be explained by minor changes in the overall composition of households in the country.
Data from Norway show an overall decrease in the rate of single parent households, whereas there is an increase in the rate of cohabiting households. Therefore, there seem to be an overall change in the household composition in Norway.
The Swedish figures change markedly from 2012 to 2013. The reason is that starting from 2013, singles and cohabiting couples without common children are registered separately. Previously, the group of cohabiting couples without common children was included in the singles category.
Single parents
In all Nordic countries, there are considerably more single mothers than single fathers. However, a closer look at the figures shows that the rate of single fathers is increasing in all countries. The increase in percentages is highest in Sweden and Norway, which also have the highest rate of single fathers across all the Nordic countries.
Number of children in households
The number of children per household is very similar across the Nordic countries. One or two children are the most common, while three or more children are less frequent. The average number of children per household is almost identical among all Nordic countries.