International Day of Families, Slovenia

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If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family.

                                                                                                          Arabic proverb 
                                                                

The annual celebration of the family day was introduced by the United Nations General Assembly, which in 1993 declared 15 May the International Day of Families. The first International Day of Families was celebrated in 1994, the International Year of the Family. This year’s sixteenth International Day of Families, held under the central theme of "Mothers and Families: Challenges in a Changing World", focused on the important role of today's mothers both in the family as well as in wider communities throughout the world. In the 21 century mothers face ever more challenges in life; in addition to their usual role of taking care of family members, mothers are increasingly assuming the role of their provider.

How statistics defines a family?

According to the definition used by statisticians in Slovenia, a family is a community of parents (one or both) and children living in the same household. The age of children is not limited; however they must not have their own families or live in consensual unions. A family is also a community of a married man and woman without children or a community of partners living in a consensual union without children.

Statistically, however, a family is not a community of a parent with an adult child who already has his or her family. Also, statistically, a family is not a community of a grandparent and a grandchild, or a brother and a sister who live together without their parents.

Data on the number and types of families in Slovenia are mostly collected with population censuses. As regards the position of individual members within the family, we distinguish between these types of families: a married couple without children, a married couple with children, a mother with children, a father with children, unmarried partners without children, and unmarried partners with children.

At the 2002 Population Census almost 80% of people in Slovenia lived in families

In 2002:

• 1.7 million people in Slovenia (78%) were living in 685,000 households and 556,000 families; 
• compared to the 1991 census the number of families in 2002 increased by 12,000 and compared to the 1981 census by 33,000; the number of family members decreased from 3.38 in 1991 to 3.06 in 2002; 
• the most common type of family in Slovenia is married couples (73.7%);
• among 555,945 families the most (53.0%) were married couples with children; married couples without children represented 20.7% of all families, followed by mothers with children (16.1%), unmarried couples with children (5.3%), fathers with children (2.6%) and unmarried couples without children (2.3%); 
• in non-urban settlements there were 6% more married couples with children than in urban settlements, although only 3% (285,370 families) more families were living in urban settlements than in non-urban settlements (270,575 families); 
• most of the families, namely 208,018 or 37%, had only one child, 32% had two children, 23% were without children and 7% had three or more children: the Obalno-kraška statistical region had the lowest share of families with three or more children (3.4% of all families) and Jugovzhodna Slovenija had the highest (8.1%); 
• families of unmarried couples with children mostly had one child (57.2%); 35.9% of such families had two children, 5.5% had 3 children, and only 1.3% had 4 or more children; 
• 80% of children lived in families with both parents: 73.9% of these children in the families of married parents and 9.4% in the families of unmarried couples; 
• as regards mothers with children, in most cases the mother lived with one child (70.3%); 25.5% of mothers lived with two children and 4.1% of mothers lived with 3 or more children. 1.2 percentage points more families of mothers with one child were registered in urban than in non-urban settlements; 
• between the last two censuses the number of families without children in Slovenia increased by 14,000. These are mostly families of older married couples (in 80% of these families at least one spouse was older than 50 years), whose children have already created their own families and/or left their parents’ family and started to live in their own household.

Number of adopted children is falling

The number of adoptions in Slovenia has been declining. By 1990 every year about 100 adoptions had been registered in Slovenia; however, in time that number dropped by half. About half of all adoptions are so-called spousal (or step-parent) adoptions, which means that by forming a new family a husband adopts a wife’s child or a wife adopts a husband’s child. Half of adoptions are so-called full (or plenary) adoptions. In 2006 only 3 adoptions were registered in Slovenia, of which 1 was adoption by the spouse and 2 were full adoptions, while in 2007 14 adoptions were registered, 12 full adoptions and 2 spousal adoptions.

In March 2009, 1,166 children in Slovenia in foster care

Underage children who have no parents or who for various reasons can not live with their parents, i.e. in the biological family, or who need to be excluded from the environment in which they live because of threats, are found foster families by centres for social work. The foster care system is a responsibility of the state to provide a child who, for various reasons, can not live temporarily with his or her parents, a family in which the child obtains a positive family experience. Foster care has a long tradition in Slovenia. According to the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, in 2003 about five hundred foster families took care of 1,369 children, in March 2009 - when 817 foster parents had a license in Slovenia – 1,166 children (589 girls and 577 boys) lived in foster families, among them 323 children were placed in families that perform foster care as relatives.

Social assistance

In 2008, child allowances were paid to 376,802 beneficiaries in Slovenia in the amount of EUR 276 million. The number of beneficiaries decreased compared to the previous years: in 2000 411,397 beneficiaries, in 2005 379,014, in 2006 383,415 and in 2007 379,108. The average monthly number of beneficiaries of parental compensation in 2008 increased compared to 2007 by nearly 9% (to 20,959).
Fathers’ compensation (which is a form of parental compensation) was received or paternity leave used by 15,800 fathers or over 3% more than in 2007.
Child birth allowance was received by nearly 6% more beneficiaries (21,111) than in 2007. Child-care allowance was received on average by 5,957 children per month, which is almost 5% more than in the previous year.
Large family allowance was in 2008 compared to 2007 also received by more beneficiaries, by over 2.5% more (28,830).
Partial payment for lost income was in 2008 received an average by 488 beneficiaries per month, which is 11.5% more than in 2007. The average monthly number of beneficiaries of the right to shorter working time and the right to payment of contributions due to leaving the labour market also increased.

According to the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, most of the children and youth using services provided by centres for social work were those who were deprived of normal family life: in 2007 12,156, among them more than a half children of parents with unsettled mutual relations (6,722 or 55.3%), and as many as 784 abandoned and neglected children.

Below the poverty threshold usually households without persons in employment

With the Survey on Income and Living Conditions the countries identify relative poverty, which does not say how many people are actually poor, but how many people have a lower income than the median value of income in the country. This so-called relative poverty is shown by the at-risk-of-poverty rate.

In 2007, 11.5% of people lived below the poverty threshold (or 11.0% if we include income in kind). The annual at-risk-of-poverty threshold for a one-member household was set at EUR 5,944; the disposable monthly income of people below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold was thus below EUR 495 per person. A four-member family with two adults and two children should have at least EUR 1,040 of disposable monthly income to rise above the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, while a two-member household without children should have at least EUR 743 per month.

In 2007, 54.5% of persons in households without persons in employment and with dependent children and 30.6% of persons in households without persons in employment and without dependent children lived below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold in Slovenia. In addition, 31.2% of people in households with children in which fewer than half of members were working and 14.5% of people in households with no children in which fewer than half of members were working were also living below the threshold.

Of all households the worst off were one-member households as 39.4% of people living in them were below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Among them older women stood out with a 47.1% rate. 28.6% of people in one-parent households, 15.5% of people in two-parent households with at least three dependent children and about 12% of couples without dependent children were also living below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold.

Employment of parents also depends on affordable child care

According to the European Commission report, parents in Europe have difficulties due to lack of child care, which is vital to promoting employment of parents, strengthening gender equality and providing greater social inclusion. To promote women's access to the labour market, it is crucial to have quality and affordable childcare with working hours that are acceptable for the parents and children.

The number of children included in kindergartens in Slovenia in the school year 2008/09 increased by 7.5% over the previous year. Nearly 66,000 children (70% of all children of appropriate age) were included in preschool education in kindergartens and in daily care families. In accordance with the 2002 Barcelona goals in this area, the EU should provide childcare by 2010 for at least 90% of children between 3 years of age and the statutory school age and for at least 33% of children under 3 years of age. As in the school year 2008/09 in Slovenia 49% of children aged up to 3 years (in the school year 2000/01 only 29%) were included in kindergartens, Slovenia has already achieved this goal. On the other hand, the share of children between 3 years of age and the statutory school age included in kindergartens, i.e. in the second age bracket, was 84% (in the school year 2000/01 almost 70%).