According to the nuclear family concept defined by the United Nations, married or cohabiting couples with or without children or single parents with children constitute a family. What is important to note about this concept is that it is restricted to those children who live in the same household without their own partner and/or their own children. It does not take account of children who have already moved out of the parental home.
According to the Register-based Labour Market Statistics (reference date: 31 October 2018), there are 2 429 431 families in Austria. There are children (of all ages) in 1 438 354 of the families (59.2%). All in all, there are 883 975 married couples (36.4% of the families) and 181 614 cohabiting couples with at least one child (7.5% of the families). The Register-based Labour Market Statistics also yielded 372 765 lone parents (15.3%). Of this figure, lone mothers and their children account for the greatest share (311 200 or 12.8% of the families). Families with lone fathers constitute a much smaller share (around 61 565 or 2.5%). 991 077 families are couples without children (40.8%). Because the family statistics only records family members living in the same household, the majority of these families are couples whose children have already left the parental home.
The distribution of families based on the number of children of all ages is as follows: in roughly half of all families with children (52.5%) there is one child, in 35.5% there are two and in 9.4% there are three children. Overall in Austria there are only 37 830 families with four or more children (2.6%). The average number of children per family with children of all ages in 2018 is 1.63 compared with 1.99 in 1971.
Please consult our German website for tables and charts containing further information.
According to the final results of the Register-based Census held on 31 October 2011, there are 2 306 650 families in Austria. There are children in 1 427 000 of the families (61.9%). All in all, there are 906 600 married couples (39.3% of the families) and 149 700 cohabiting couples with at least one child (6.5% of the families). The Census also yielded 370 700 lone parents (16.1%). Of this figure, lone mothers and their children account for the greatest share (316 000 or 13.7% of the families). Families with lone fathers constitute a much smaller share (around 54 700 or 2.4%). 879 700 families are couples without children (38.1%). Because the family statistics only record family members living in the same household, the majority of these families are couples whose children have already left the parental home.
The distribution of families based on the number of children is as follows: in roughly half of all families with children (51.9%) there is one child, in 35.7% there are two and in 9.7% there are three children. Overall in Austria there are only 38 600 families with four or more children (2.7%).
The average number of children per family with children of all ages in 2011 was 1.64 compared with 1.99 in 1971. The average number of children belonging to married couples (with children) was 1.77. Cohabiting couples have 1.53 children on average, lone mothers 1.39 and lone fathers 1.29.