Speaking Of: : The Changing Family

Not only are families becoming smaller in the world’s developed countries--the traditional “nuclear family,” with husband, wife and children forming the typical household, is changing. Scandinavian countries are the pacesetters in adopting non-traditional forms of households, especially with their relatively high numbers of births outside of wedlock and cohabitation outside of legal marriage. Japan is the most traditional. But the United States has the highest incidence of divorce and single-parent households.

In the Face of Declining Birth Rates...Births to Unmarried Women on the Rise

Birth rates throughout the industrialized world have trended steadily downward. But births to unmarried women are on the rise. In the U.S. and Britain, about one-third of such births are to teen-agers, while in Sweden half are to women aged 25-34.

Births to Unmarried Women as a Percent of all Live Births

Britain 1960: 5.2 1970: 8.0 1980: 11.5 1986: 21.0

Canada 1960: 4.3 1970: 9.6 1980: 11.3 1986: 16.9

France 1960: 6.1 1970: 6.8 1980: 11.4 1986: 21.9

Japan 1960: 1.2 1970: 0.9 1980: 0.8 1986: 1.0

Netherlands 1960: 1.3 1970: 2.1 1980: 4.1 1986: 8.8

Sweden 1960: 11.3 1970: 19.4 1980: 39.7 1986: 48.4

West Germany 1960: 6.3 1970: 5.5 1980: 7.6 1986: 9.6

United States 1960: 5.3 1970: 10.7 1980: 18.4 1986: 23.4

In the Face of Fewer Marriages, More Divorces

The U.S. traditionally has one of the highest marriage--and divorce--rates in the world. Now liberalized divorce laws are bringing a divorce boom in much of Europe.

Divorce Rates per 1,000 Married Women

Britain 1960: 2.0 1970: 4.7 1980: 12.0 1986: 12.9 Canada 1960: 1.8 1970: 6.3 1980: 10.9 1986: 12.9

France 1960: 2.9 1970: 3.3 1980: 6.3 1986: 8.5

Japan 1960: 3.6 1970: 3.9 1980: 4.5 1986: 5.4

Netherlands 1960: 2.2 1970: 3.3 1980: 7.5 1986: 8.7

Sweden 1960: 5.0 1970: 6.8 1980: 11.4 1986: 11.7

West Germany 1960: 3.6 1970: 5.1 1980: 6.1 1986: 8.3

United States 1960: 9.2 1970: 14.9 1980: 22.6 1986: 21.2

What Makes a Household? The Rules are Changing

Households consisting of a married couple, with or without children, still predominate. But their share of the total is in steady decline everywhere except Japan.

* The one-person household has become the fastest growing household type except in Japan, where nearly two-thirds of the elderly still live with their children.

* Unmarried couples living together as a percentage of all couples living together grew in the United States from 1.2% in 1970 to nearly 5% by 1988.

* So-called “consensual unions” of unmarried couples are higher in Canada and most of Europe than in the U.S., and in Sweden and Denmark they represent about 20% of all cohabiting couples

* Sweden has the oldest population among 10 industrialized nations studied, with 17.7% aged 65 years and over; the United States has the youngest population, with 21.8% under age 14.

SOURCE: MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW, U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS