International Day of the Family: families in Slovenia

What is a family in the statistical sense?
In the statistical sense, a family is composed of parents and their children living in the same household who do not have their own families. If the children become parents, are married, live in a consensual union or leave the original family, they are no longer considered to be members of their parents’ family. If there are no children in the family, the family is composed of the husband and wife or partners living together.

The number of families is on the rise but they are getting smaller
According to the most recent data collected with the 2002 Census, there are about 556,000 families in Slovenia, with the average of 3.1 members. As much as 87% of the population lives in families.
Most families in Slovenia are still married couples with children (53%), but recently their number has gradually been falling. This form of family is being replaced by modern forms of family unions. The number of unions in which the partners are not married but have children is still ten times lower (5.3%), but since the 1991 Census their number has grown the most.

Most single parent families (86%) are mothers with children
Almost every fifth family in Slovenia is a single parent family. The number of such families is on the rise; since the 1981 Census it has almost doubled. Almost a half of parents in such families are over 50 years old and a fifth are over 65 years old.

An average family with children has 3.4 members
In families with children the number of children is falling and their mean age is rising. On average, families in which parents are married have 3.7 members, families of unmarried couples have 3.5 members and single parent families have 2.3 members. About a half of families (48.6%) have one child and 42% of families have two children.

Families with three or more children are not very common
In Slovenia large families are those with three or more children. These families are not very common: only 9% of all families with children. They are mostly found in areas with traditionally high fertility rates; e.g. in municipalities Gorenja vas-Poljane, Bloke, Loški potok, Železniki, Vipava, Dobrepolje, Žužemberk, Mirna Peč and Horjul every fifth family with children is a large family. Children in large families are all children living with parents, irrespective of their age. The only condition is that they do not have their own families and that they still live in their parents’ homes. Large families with children under 18 years of age (or 26 if they are still in education) receive a large family allowance once a year. According to data supplied by the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, the allowance for 2006 is SIT 81,910. In 2005 this allowance was given to 24,962 families.



Few large families compared to Europe
Compared to other European countries, Slovenia has few large families. The situation in our country can be compared to the Baltic States and the Czech Republic, where the share is under 10%. Among the countries that joined the EU at the same time as Slovenia, Poland and Slovakia have almost twice as many large families as Slovenia. The greatest number of large families is recorded in Ireland, where every third family with children is a large family, and in Cyprus, where every fourth family with children is a large one.

The share of single parent families among the highest in Europe
While all new member states of the European Union except Cyprus have high shares of single parent families – in the Baltic States more than 20% of families are single parent families – the old EU member states have a relatively higher share of families in which the partners are not married. Such families are most frequent in the Scandinavian countries; in Denmark every fourth family is a consensual union. High shares of consensual unions are also registered in Finland, Norway and Estonia, while very low shares are characteristic for the Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain), Poland and Slovakia.