There are more families in Portugal but they are getting smaller – Society
There are 4,149,096 families in Portugal, a figure that represents an increase of 2.6% compared to the 4,043,726 households identified in the 2011 Census. In the space of a decade, the country has more families, but these are increasingly little ones. The average size of private households is 2.5 people, compared to 3.7 people in 1970.
Households composed of a single person represent 24.8% of the total, that is, around one million, which represents an increase compared to the 21.4% observed in 2011. Households of a single person aged 65 or over years represent 12.5% of the total number of private households (10.1% in 2011).
The profile of people living alone is made up of women (61.4%), aged 65 or more (60.1%), mostly retired (57.3%), with education up to basic education (64.9% ). ).
Most of the more than three million households made up of two or more people have children (45.3% are couples with children and 18.5% are single-parent households). There are also 36.2% couples without children or whose descendants have an autonomous life.
Most couples with children celebrate marriage, this type of union being more common in the north of the country and in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The average number of children per household of couples with children has dropped in almost all regions of the country, with the exception of the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, Alentejo and Algarve.
In most regions, the average number of children per family is higher among married couples. The exception occurs in Alentejo, where the average number of children per family unit is higher among de facto couples.
“The average number of children per family unit is higher when both siblings are employed or have a higher education level”, reveals the publication “What the Censuses tell us about family structures” prepared by the National Institute of Statistics.
The document presents a descriptive analysis of data from the 2021 Census on private households and nuclear families.