Household composition statistics

Data extracted in May 2024.

Planned article update: June 2025.

Highlights

In 2023, 200 million households resided in the EU, of which over 73 million were single adults without children.

The number of single-person households without children in the EU increased by 21.0 % from 2013 to 2023.

In 2023, 8.0 % of children aged 0-17 and 8.1 % of people aged 18-59 in the EU lived in jobless households.

This article presents data on how the number and composition of households have changed in the European Union (EU) and in the EU countries since 2013. Special attention is given the presence of children in households.

The statistics in this article are based on the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), the largest European household sample survey.

Full article

Increasing number of households composed of adults living alone

In 2023, 200 million households resided in the EU. In the same year, the EU had the highest number of single adult households without children (73.4 million), followed by couples without children (48.4 million), other type of households without children and couples with children (30.6 million and 30.3 million respectively).

The total number of households in the EU increased by 7.0 % between 2013 and 2022. Single adult households without children experienced the fastest growth rate of 21.0 % over the same period (see Figure 1). Households made up of couples (according to the legal marital status or de facto relationship) without children increased by 5.9 %.

The number of the rest of households in the EU remained almost unchanged or decreased between 2013 and 2023. Couples with children decreased by 3.7 %. Households with two adults (not a couple) or more, also referred to as 'other type' of households in this article, fell by 3.0 %. In this type of household, the decrease is higher in households with children (-6.1 %) than in households without children (-1.8 %).

Figure 1: Households by type and presence of children, 2013 - 2023, EU
Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhnhtych)

A main conceptual issue related to household statistics is the distinction between child and adult. In line with international standards, a child is defined as a household member aged less than 18 years. Conversely, an adult is a person aged 18 years and over.

Single adult population

More than one fifth of the adult population live alone or are single parents. The proportion of single adults increases with age. Slightly more than a tenth of young adults aged 18-24 living alone, but almost one third of those aged 65 years or older are single. Concerning single adults, in 2023 the number both men and women living alone (with or without children) was higher than in 2013. This finding holds for all age groups. The number of single adults aged 18-54 increased by around 13 %, while for people older than 54 the increase exceeded 23 %.

The number of adult men living alone (with or without children) increased more steeply than that of adult women living alone, with a significant increase in the number of single adults aged 55-64 years (+43.7 % for men against +17.2 % for women).

Looking at the proportion of the single adult population among the total EU adult population by age, sex and presence of children, it is worth highlighting large differences between men and women in both 2013 and 2023, especially in the 25-54 age group (see Figure 2). In this age group, the share of single adult women with children is significantly higher than the share of men in the same situation, in both 2013 and 2023. In addition, the proportion of women increased faster between 2013 and 2023 than for men.

In 2023, 5.4 % of adult women aged 25-54 were single parents with children, against 0.9 % of adult men, due to the prevalence of single-parent households led by women.

The share of single men aged 25-54 without children was much higher between 2013 and 2023 than the share of women in the same situation and increased faster than for women during this period. In 2023, 19.5 % of adult men aged 25-54 were single without children against 11.5 % of adult women (in 2013, 15.7 % and 9.8 %, respectively).

Among the 55-64-year-olds, the share of single men also increased faster than that of women. By 2023, the share of single men and women was almost equal (respectively 19.7 % and 20.4 %).

Figure 2a: Share of Men's single adult population by age and presence of children, 2013 and 2023, EU
Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhindws)

Figure 2b: Share of Women's single adult population by age and presence of children, 2013 and 2023, EU
Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhindws)

Presence and number of children

The household breakdown in 2023 shows that the number of children varies considerably between countries (see Map 1). In the EU as a whole, 23.8 % of households included children, while 76.2 % did not. Around one third of households in the EU had children in Slovakia (36.3 %) and Ireland (33.3 %). By contrast, less than a fifth of households in Finland (17.8 %) included children.

Map 1: Share of households with children, 2023
Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhnhtych)

Couples accounted for 63.6 % of households with children in the EU, making it the most common type of household with children. Sweden, Finland, Greece, and the Netherlands had the highest share of couples, above 70 %, among households with children. Denmark, and Latvia had the lowest shares, where 45 % of households with children were couples.

Other types of households accounted for less than a quarter (24.0 %) of households with children in the EU. This share was above 35 % in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, but less than 15 % in Finland and Estonia.

Single parents accounted for 12.4 % of households with children in the EU as a whole. Among households with children in the EU, the highest proportions of single parents were recorded in Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia (all above 25 %). By contrast, Slovakia, Greece, Slovenia, and Croatia had the lowest shares, all below 5 %.

Considering households with children, those with one child are the most common. In 2023 almost half of households with children in the EU had one child (48.9 %), while 38.2 % included two children, and 12.9 % three or more children. Among households with children, households with one child were predominant in all EU countries, except in Ireland and the Netherlands, where the share of households with two children was higher (see Figure 3).

Households with three or more children were the least common across countries. Their share in households with children was 23.0 % in Ireland, 18.8 % in Finland, and 18.3 % in Sweden, but below 10 % in Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy and Lithuania.

Figure 3: Households with children by number of children, 2023
Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhnhtych)

Employment in households

In 2023, more than half of EU households (excluding those composed solely of students or solely of people outside the labour force aged 65 and over) were households where all adults were employed, whether part-time or full-time (57.2 % of all private households, Figure 4). In 40.8 % of EU households all adults were working full-time, and in 16.4 % of households at least one adult was working part-time while all other adults (if there were any) were working full-time. By contrast, in 28.6 % of EU households, at least one adult was not working and at least one adult was working (whether part-time or full-time). In 14.2 % of EU households, no adults were working. The share of households where all adults worked has increased compared to 2022. Consequently, the share of households with some or all non-working member(s) has decreased.

Figure 4: Households by working status, 2023
Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhnhwhtc)

This picture changes when looking at the presence or absence of children in the household. All adults were employed in 60.7 % of households with economically dependent children in 2023 but only in 55.6 % of households without children.

These shares can be broken down as follows:

All adults were working full-time in 38.4 % of households with children and in 41.9 % of households without children.

At least one adult was working part-time and all other adults (if any) were working full-time in 22.3 % of households with children, which is significantly higher than the share of households without children (13.7 %)

At least one adult was working and one adult was not working in almost one third of EU households with children (32.2 %) and only in 27.0 % of EU households without children.

Finally, 7.1 % of households with children did not include any employed adults against 17.4 % of households without children (no adults working).

At national level, the Netherlands, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Finland had the highest shares of households in which all adults were working: all adults were working in more than two thirds of the households (see Figure 4).

Focusing only on households in which all adults were working full-time, Lithuania ranked first with 59.3 % of its households, followed by Estonia (56.8 %) and Hungary (53.5 %).

Households in which at least one person was working part-time while the other adults were working full-time were more common in the Netherlands (41.1 %), Germany (29.2 %) and Austria (28.5 %).

Slovakia (49.0 %), Greece (47.1 %) and Croatia (46.3 %) had the highest shares of households with at least one person working and at least another one not working.

By contrast, in 2023, Belgium (19.3 %), Romania (18.0 %) and Italy (17.3 %) had the highest percentages of households in which no adults were working.

Children and adults in jobless households

In 2023, 8.0 % of children aged 0-17 and 8.1 % of people aged 18-59 in the EU lived in jobless households. In 2013, these shares were 10.5 % for children aged 0-17 and 11.3 % for people aged 18-59, the highest in 2013-2023.

Both categories continuously decreased between 2013-2019. In 2019, 8.7 % of children aged 0-17 and 8.8 % of people aged 18-59 lived in households where nobody worked. However, the share of children increased by 0.4 pp and the share of people aged 18-59 by 0.5 pp in 2020. (see Figure 5), most probably due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2021 and 2023, the proportions of both age groups living in jobless households slightly decreased or remained almost the same.

Figure 5: Share of people living in jobless households, 2013 – 2023, EU
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_jhh_a)

In 2023, 10 % 10 % or more of children lived in jobless households in Romania (13.4 %), Belgium (11.9 %) and France (10.0 %), while in Sweden (3.9 %) and Slovenia (2.7 %) it was less than 4 % of the children aged 0-17. Between 2013 and 2023, the share of children living in jobless households decreased in most EU countries. The largest decreases were observed in Ireland (-11.2 percentage points from 2013 to 2023), Hungary (-10.0 pp) and Greece (-8.6 pp). This share increased slightly in Malta, Romania, Luxembourg, Finland and Germany.

More than 10 % of people aged 18-59 lived in households where no one was employed, in Belgium (11.0 %), Italy (10.9 %), Lithuania (10.6 %), Finland (10.6 %) and Romania (10.4 %), while less than 5 % of people lived in such households in Slovenia (4.8 %), Hungary (4.7 %), Malta (3.8 %) and Czechia (3.1 %). This share has decreased since 2013 in almost all EU countries, most notably in Greece (-12.1 percentage points), Ireland (-7.8 pp) and Hungary (-7.6 pp).

Source data for tables and graphs

Download Excel file - Households 2023 data and figures

Methods and definitions

Data sources

All statistics presented in this article are derived from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). The EU-LFS is the largest European household sample survey providing quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 years and over. It covers residents in private households and excludes those in collective households. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between the countries.

Under the specific topic 'Households statistics', the EU-LFS currently covers statistics on household composition, number and size of households, working status within households, employment by household composition and employment by number of children.

Reference period: Yearly results are obtained as averages of the four quarters in the year.

Coverage: The results from the EU-LFS currently cover all European Union EU countries, the EFTA countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, as well as the candidate countries Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Türkiye. For Cyprus, the survey covers only the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Nevertheless, EU-LFS household data are not available for Iceland, Switzerland, Serbia and Türkiye.

European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of EU countries. If data are unavailable for a country, the calculation of the corresponding aggregates takes into account the data for the same country for the most recent period available. Such cases are indicated.

Definitions

Employment covers persons living in private households, who during the reference week performed work, even for just one hour, for pay, profit or family gain, or were not at work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent, for example because of illness, holidays, industrial dispute or education and training.

The distinction between full-time and part-time work is generally based on a spontaneous response by the respondent. The main exceptions are the Netherlands and Iceland where a 35 hours threshold is applied, Sweden where a threshold is applied to the self-employed, and Norway where persons working between 32 and 36 hours are asked whether this is a full- or part-time position.

Jobless households are households in which no member is in employment, i. e. all members are either unemployed or outside the labour force.

A child is defined as a household member aged less than 18 years.

Country notes

In Germany, from the first quarter of 2020 onwards, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is part of a new system of integrated household surveys. Technical issues and the COVID-19 crisis has had a large impact on data collection processes in 2020, resulting in low response rates and a biased sample. For more information, see here.

In the Netherlands, the 2021 LFS data remains collected using a rolling reference week instead of a fixed reference week, i.e. interviewed persons are asked about the situation of the week before the interview rather than a pre-selected week.

Spain and France have assessed the attachment to the job and included in employment those who, in their reference week, had an unknown duration of absence but expected to return to the same job once health measures allow it.

Time series

Regulation Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 came into force on 1 January 2021 and induced a break in the EU-LFS time series for several EU countries.

Additional methodological information

More information on the EU-LFS can be found via the online publication EU Labour Force Survey, which includes eight articles on the technical and methodological aspects of the survey. The EU-LFS methodology in force from the 2021 data collection onwards is described in methodology from 2021 onwards. Detailed information on coding lists, explanatory notes and classifications used over time can be found under documentation.

Context

In addition to the Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), the EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is also a source of household statistics. The EU-SILC is a multi-purpose instrument which focuses mainly on income. However, information on housing conditions, social exclusion, labour and education is also collected.