Households, Families and Kin Networks

Trends over time in household and family structure reflect changes in the timing and occurrence of major life transitions such as marriage and parenthood. The focus in this chapter is on trends in the Netherlands, but data from other European countries are presented for comparative purposes. The key question is how socio-demographic developments shape household and family composition (who lives with whom) and kin networks (how many and what kinds of kin ties do people have). The socio-demographic trends pertain to individuals, partnerships, and offspring. The chapter describes the ways in which the combined outcomes of these trends show up in patterns of household composition (e.g. increasing numbers of people living on their own) and family structure (e.g. decreasing proportions of families with dependent children, living arrangements of the elderly).The chapter addresses not only past and ongoing trends, but also possible developments in the future, using the results of microsimulations of kin networks. National census and register data are supplemented, where necessary and feasible, with representative survey data.