Nearly 25% of EU households had at least 1 child in 2022

In 2022, in the EU, there were nearly 200 million private households. Slightly less than a quarter of those (24.3%) included children. Around 10% of households included either 1 child (12.1%) or 2 children (9.3%), while only 3.0% of the EU’s households included 3 children or more.

The total number of households in the EU rose by 6.9% between 2012 and 2022. The percentage of households which included at least 1 child decreased by 2.4 percentage points (pp) in the same period.

The highest shares of households with children were recorded in Slovakia (33.9%), Ireland (32.2%) and Cyprus (30.6%), while the lowest shares were in Finland (18.4%), Germany (20.1%) and the Netherlands (21.8%). 

 Source dataset: lfst_hhnhtych

One child households were most common among households with children in 26 EU countries

For households with children, those with 1 child were the most common in the EU. Almost half of the households with children had 1 child (49.5%) in 2022, while 38.1% had 2 children and 12.4% included 3 or more children. 

Households with 1 child were the most prevalent among households with children in all EU countries, except for the Netherlands, where households with 2 children had a higher percentage. More than half of the households with children were with 1 child in Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, Italy, Spain and Hungary. 

Households with 3 children or more were the least common across all EU countries. Their percentage among all households with children ranged from 22.3% in Ireland, 21.2% in Sweden and 19.0% in Finland, to 6.3% in Portugal, 6.5% in Bulgaria and 7.4% in Italy. 

Source dataset: lfst_hhnhtych

This article is published on World Children’s Day, celebrated annually on 20 November, aimed at promoting international togetherness, raising awareness about children worldwide and improving children's welfare.