Household structure in the EU

Abstract

This paper maps key indicators of household structure across 24 countries of the EU. Our main aim is to assess the extent to which the new Member States of Eastern Europe display differences and similarities with the other countries of the EU. We find that the Eastern European countries are rather heterogeneous. The Czech Republic and Hungary are not dissimilar to the countries of North-Western Europe; by contrast, households in Slovenia, Slovakia and Poland closely resemble Southern European households. It is the Baltic states – particularly Latvia – where household structure least resembles structures in any of the pre-enlargement EU countries.