Households and families, Slovenia, 1 January 2015

2% of the population lived in institutional households

On 1 January 2015, 2,024,604 persons (98.1% of the population) lived in 820,541 (private) households in Slovenia, 35,324 persons lived in 435 institutional households, and the remaining 2,946 persons in 80 other households. Most of the persons in institutional households were living in old people’s homes (17,600) and in the residences for students (11,500). Compared to 1 January 2011, the number of persons living in other households (including homeless people) more than doubled.

Every third household is a one-person household

The average size of households and the household structure by the number of household members have not changed a lot since 1 January 2011, but the trend of less numerous households has continued. 13% of the population lived alone (almost one in seven people). Although the numbers of male and female one-person households on 1 January 2011 were almost the same, big differences in the age structure and reasons for the establishment of such households were revealed. At ages 19-25 years almost half of one-person households consist of students living in hired private dwellings in the place of study (almost twice more girls than boys). From the age of 25 years male one-person households start to prevail, including foreigners. Of the 35,600 foreigners living in one-person households (10% women only), 42% lived in institutional dwellings for migrant workers. But their number is lower than on 1 January 2011 by 2,400, which is partly the result of the economic crisis and lower employment, particularly in construction.

By increasing age (the turning point is 63 years), the ratio between male and female one-person households changes rapidly, largely because of the differences in life expectancy between men and women. At the age of 80 the share of male one-person households is 20%. At the ages over 90 it falls to 15%.

70% of women aged 65 years or over and living alone are widows (the share of widowers is 36%). One in five men aged 65 or over and living in a one-person household has never been married (and only one in nine women). The ageing of one-person households is a serious social issue as the average age of women is 64 years (of men 51 years).

 In four years the number of consensual unions increased by a quarter

Even though the married couple families with children are still the most common (224,000 in Slovenia on 1 January 2015), their number has been decreasing since 1991. Compared to the 2011 Register-based Census, the number of married couple families without children in Slovenia increased slightly (by 6,000) to 131,000 and they were the second most numerous group. The main reason for the rise in the number of families without children was the changes in the life-cycle of the family, as adult children become members of new families which they had established. There were only 1,900 young married couples (both husband and wife under 30 year of age) without children. In married couple families the share of wives who have not (yet) given birth was 11% of such families (14,500). In a half of the married couple families without children the wife was older than 42 years (the probability of giving birth in Slovenia after this age is negligible).

The share of births outside marriage reached almost 60% in 2014; consequently, the number of consensual unions with children increased in the last four years from 49,000 to 62,000. Also the number of consensual unions without children has risen from 12,200 to 15,600. There were 1,900 young unmarried couples (both partners under 30 year of age) without children (the same as the number of young married couples without children). The share of consensual unions is 13.4% of all families (at the 2002 Census it was almost a half lower – 7.6%).

The number of single parent families has not changed compared to 1 January 2011 (also the share is almost the same and represents one quarter). But the ratio between lone mother families and lone father families is different. There were 3,400 lone mother families less (by 2.8%) and the same number of lone father families more (by 14.6%). One third of lone mothers are single (three out of four have children younger than 18), one quarter are widows (and almost without children younger than 18) and one quarter are divorced (20% of them have children younger than 18). Almost 18,000 mothers with children are married but not living together with their husbands. 72% of them established their own households, while others are still living in their primary families. Also most of the lone fathers with children are single (7,800), followed by married ones (7,000). Widowers (6,200) and divorced (5,700) have children of similar average age as lone mothers of the same marital status.

Approximately 30% of husbands/wives of lone married parents are not residents of Slovenia (12% of lone married fathers and 10% of lone married mothers are foreigners). Around 40% of spouses of lone parents live in their own (one-person) household at the other address and around 20% of them still as children in the primary family. We could conclude that the share of lone parent families is over-estimated as the registered place of residence may be different from the actual one (in fact spouses could live together). 

Number of children in the families has not changed since 2011

On 1 January 2015 an average Slovenian family had 1.16 children (1.56 children if we take into account only families with children; they represent three quarters of all families). Families with only one child prevailed (53%), followed by families with two children (36%). Families with many children are very rare (there were only 78 families with 8 or more children, which is 13 more than four years ago). Nevertheless, we have to point out that the age of the child is not limited, so certain families consisted also of children aged 65 or more (there were 654 such families, almost exclusively lone mother families – 603).

On average, most children (1.68) lived in married couple families, but their average age (18.3 years) exceeded the age of majority. The youngest children (9.9 years) lived in consensual union couple families, whereas the oldest, having on average 22.2 years, lived in lone mother families and those aged 21.2 years in lone father families.

A third of families with children younger than 19 years

Every third family consists of at least one child participating in education aged 0-5 years (preschool) or 6-14 years (elementary school) or 15-18 years (upper secondary school). The number of such families is presented in the infographic. The average number of children in such families is slightly higher (1.68) than the national average; 1.87 in married couple families.

81 same-sex families, of which 46 between men and 35 between women

In the scope of the 2015 Register-based Census SURS derived for the first time the data on same-sex families. There were 81 same-sex families, of which 64 without children and 17 with children. The number of family types increased from six to eight. That is a new milestone in developing family statistics after the 1981 Census, when for the first time data on consensual unions were collected. At that time around 10,000 consensual unions were recorded (2% of all families).