The proportion of live births outside marriage in the European Union is on the rise but not so in Cyprus and Greece, according to the latest Eurostat figures.
While 42% of live births in the EU are outside marriage, 70% of live births in Cyprus and Greece were registered within marriage.
The EU’s percentage, recorded in 2018, is 17 points above the value in 2000, according to the figures released in Brussels on Friday.
“It signals new patterns of family formation alongside the more traditional model where children were born within a marriage. Extramarital births occur in non-marital relationships, among cohabiting couples and to lone parents,” Eurostat analysts said.
In 2018, extramarital births outnumbered births inside marriages in eight EU Member States.
Specifically, France (60%), Bulgaria (59%), Slovenia (58%), Portugal (56%), Sweden (55%), Denmark and Estonia (both 54%) as well as the Netherlands (52%).
