EU study shows Irish have largest households

Ireland has the largest households in Europe with four people on average, a new survey has shown.

The survey of 153,000 people across the European Union was conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research based at the University of Essex.

It also showed families varied across the continent, with Catholic southern European countries, and Ireland, having bigger extended families and children, especially males, generally spending more years at home.

Ireland has the largest households, with four people on average, with the UK at 2.8.

People in Catholic countries also generally leave home and live with partners later in life, compared to northern Europeans and Scandinavians.

In all countries, just living with a partner is around three times more common among people in their 20s than among those in their 30s, and nearly twice as common in the 30s as in the 40s.

Among women in their 20s the proportion who are cohabiting rather than formally married is well under 10% in southern/Catholic countries; between 20% and 50% in the UK and between 60% and 75% in the Scandinavian countries and Holland.

Married couples are always more likely to have children.

Teen motherhood is more strongly associated with poverty in the UK than anywhere else in Europe.

The report, Diverse Europe: mapping patterns of social change across the EU, will be published next week as part of the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) annual social science conference.