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Finland FAMILY LIFE
The profound demographic and economic changes that
occurred
in Finland after World War II affected the Finnish family.
Families became smaller, dropping from an average of 3.6
persons
in 1950 to an average of 2.7 by 1975. Family composition
did not
change much in that quarter of a century, however, and in
1975
the percentage of families that consisted of a man and a
woman
was 24.4; of a couple and children, 61.9; of a woman with
offspring, 11.8; of a man and offspring, 1.9. These
percentages
are not markedly different from those of 1950. Change was
seen in
the number of children per family, which fell from an
average of
2.24 in 1950 to an average of 1.7 in the mid-1980s, and
large
families were rare. Only 2 percent of families had four or
more
children, while 51 percent had one child; 38 percent, two
children; and 9 percent, three children. The number of
Finns
under the age of 18 dropped from 1.5 million in 1960 to
1.2
million in 1980.
Data as of December 1988
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