Family matters

THE changing face of the modern Irish family has been revealed.

The report, entitled Family Figures: Family Dynamics and Family Types in Ireland, 1986-2006, shows that most women now wait until their 30s to have children, that marital breakdown has levelled off in recent years and that when marriages fall apart the child stays with the father in one-in-eight cases.

Published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), it also shows how religious affiliation and ethnicity can have a greater impact on the possibility of marriage than socio-economic factors.