Bulgaria among lowest in EU in households with children
Twenty-six per cent of households in Bulgaria had children living in them in 2018, the fifth-lowest percentage in the European Union, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on June 1 in figures released to mark Global Parents Day.
In 2018, there were 223 million households in the EU. Almost one third (65 million) of these households had children living in them.
Among the EU member states, Ireland recorded the highest proportion of households with children (39 per cent), ahead of Cyprus, Poland and Slovakia (all 36 per cent) and Romania (35 per cent). In contrast, the lowest shares were registered in Germany and Finland (both 22 per cent), followed by Sweden (23 per cent), Austria (25 per cent) and Bulgaria (26 per cent).
At EU level, almost half of all households with children (47 per cent, or 30.6 million households) consisted of only one child, while 40 per cent of households (25.8 million) had two children, and 13 per cent (8.5 million) three children or more.
The highest share of households with three or more children was registered in Ireland (26 per cent), followed by Finland (19 per cent), Belgium and France (both 18 per cent), the Netherlands (17 per cent) and the United Kingdom (16 per cent).
At the opposite end of the scale, less than 10 per cent of households in Bulgaria (five per cent), Portugal (seven per cent), Spain and Italy (both eight per cent), Lithuania (nine per cent) and Latvia (10 per cent) had three or more children in them.
At EU level, 15 per cent of households with children were single-parents households.
Denmark (29 per cent) and Estonia (28 per cent) had the highest proportions of single-parent households among households with children, ahead of Lithuania and Sweden (both 25 per cent), Latvia (23 per cent), the United Kingdom (22 per cent) and France (21 per cent).
In contrast, the lowest proportions of single-parent households were in Croatia (six per cent of all households with dependent children), Romania (seven per cent), Greece, and Slovakia and Finland (all eight per cent), Eurostat said.
