The Law To Know

Law in Charts · Marriage and divorce

Births outside marriage

What share of children are born to parents who are not married to each other, in each European country?

38 of 38 shown in the list

% of live births outside marriage

  1. Iceland69.4% 2019
  2. Bulgaria61.9% 2024
  3. Norway60.0% 2024
  4. France59.7% 2024
  5. Portugal59.2% 2024
  6. Sweden57.1% 2024
  7. Slovenia55.5% 2024
  8. Denmark54.7% 2021
  9. Estonia50.7% 2024
  10. Spain50.0% 2024
  11. Finland48.0% 2024
  12. Czechia47.0% 2024
  13. Slovakia42.0% 2024
  14. Netherlands41.9% 2024
  15. Italy41.3% 2024
  16. Georgia39.4% 2024
  17. Ireland38.4% 2019
  18. Austria38.1% 2024
  19. Latvia37.4% 2024
  20. Luxembourg37.1% 2024
  21. Germany32.4% 2024
  22. Romania32.1% 2024
  23. Serbia30.6% 2024
  24. Kosovo29.3% 2021
  25. Poland28.9% 2024

Source: Eurostat, Fertility indicators (demo_find). Data for 2019 to 2024. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

  • 38 countries or territories have a figure.
  • The highest is Iceland at 69.4% (2019) and the lowest is Türkiye at 3.4% (2024).
  • The middle value (the median) is 37.3%.

What it counts

Live births to mothers who are not married, as a share of all live births, in the latest year each country reports (since 2019).

What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison

Many of these children are born to couples who live together in a stable partnership, and the legal position of unmarried parents (for example on parental responsibility, surnames and inheritance) differs between countries. The figure is a measure of how common marriage is before parenthood, not of family stability. Eurostat marks Kosovo with an asterisk: this designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

Source

Eurostat: Fertility indicators (demo_find). Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.

Cite this chart

Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.

Reference (APA style)

TheLawToKnow. (2026). Births outside marriage [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/births-outside-marriage. Data: Eurostat, Fertility indicators (demo_find), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/demo_find/default/table (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).

Short credit for slides and websites

Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/births-outside-marriage). Data: Eurostat.

BibTeX

@misc{birthsoutsidemarriage2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {Births outside marriage},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/births-outside-marriage},
  note = {Data: Eurostat, Fertility indicators (demo_find), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/demo_find/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

Embed this chart on your own page

<iframe src="https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/embed/law-in-charts/births-outside-marriage" title="Births outside marriage, TheLawToKnow Law in Charts" width="100%" height="620" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Download the data (CSV)

Learn more

More in Marriage and divorce

General information, not legal advice. All charts.