Belgium had the third highest percentage of households with three or more children in Europe last year.
This is according to figures provided by Eurostat, the European statistics office. The figures were released in honour of World Parent Day. Only Ireland (26% of households) and Finland (19%) came above Belgium. France (18%) and Belgium came joint third.
There were 223 million households registered in the European Union last year. Nearly a third of them (65 million) had children. Around 15% of them were single parent households.
Almost half of the households with children (30.6 million, 47%) had one child, whereas 40% (25.8 million) had two. 13% (8.5 million) had three or more children. Belgium’s figures for last year were 41.2%, 40.6% and 18.1% respectively, according to Eurostat’s data.
Ireland had the highest proportion of households with children (39%). That’s more than Cyprus, Poland, Slovakia (all at 36%) and Romania (35%). Germany and Finland (both at 22%) were at the bottom of the table, just below Sweden (23%) and Austria (25%).
Bulgaria (5%), Portugal (7%), Spain and Italy (both at 8%) had the lowest number of households with three or more children in Europe.
The Brussels Times
