Recent trends in family and household composition in Europe

"This article attempts to give a broad overview of trends in family and household composition in Europe during the last few decades. The focus is on Western Europe. We look at the decreasing average size of the household and the family (section 2) and its demographic causes. The changing role of the traditional family is reviewed in section 3, while section 4 contains a discussion of non-traditional household types: one-parent families, consensual unions and one-person households. Future trends in living arrangements are explored in section 5, where simulation results of a dynamic household model, applied to the Netherlands, are presented." (SUMMARY IN FRE)