Family nucleus

Data on family nucleus are used to assess family structure and family size in Latvia – statistical regions, cities and municipalities of the Republic of Latvia.

Usual resident.

Statistical population are all inhabitants who belong to private households and are usual residents according to the definition:

those who have lived in their place of usual residence for at least 12 consecutive months before January 1 of the respective year, as well as those who arrived in their place of usual residence with the intention of staying there for at least one year.

The definition of family nucleus is laid down in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/543 of 22 March 2017 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on population and housing censuses as regards the technical specifications of the topics and of their breakdowns.  The regulation stipulates that the population and housing censuses must identify the family status and determine the family nuclei - their type and size.

According to the Cabinet Order No 280 of 2 June 2015 “On the action plan for designing and organisation of Population and Housing Census 2021” the 2021 census must be carried out by obtaining all the necessary information from administrative data sources - registers.

Statistics since 2020

Census 2011 data

Results of the Population and Housing Census that are territorially comparable between EU countries are published in the Eurostat database.

Compared to 2011, the share of a single-parent family type, especially formed by single mothers, has significantly increased. The growth of a number of single-parent families is related to several factors - Latvia has the highest divorce rates in the European Union (3.1 divorces per 1000 population per year in 2019, where almost half of the cases were families with minor children), high share of extramarital births (about 40% of children are born out of wedlock each year) as well as high emigration (more than a quarter of those who left the country are men aged 25-44, of whom 1/3 were married). Families where one of the parents does not permanently live in Latvia are counted as single parent families.

N/A

To make population estimate CSB uses the following administrative data sources:

• Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA);
• State Revenue Service (SRS);
• State Social Insurance Agency (SSIA);
• Ministry of Education and Science (MES);
• Agricultural Data Centre (ADC);
• Rural Support Service (RSS);
• National Health Service (NHS);
• State Employment Agency (SEA);
• Road Traffic Safety Directorate;
• Latvian Prison Administration;
• the Ministry of Welfare. 

Quality control of the estimate is ensured by using the following data:

• Social Assistance Administration Information System data on number of persons that have received local government allowances and services;
• individual data of the Administration of Studies and Research about persons who have received a study/ student loan for studies abroad;
• data of the State Education Quality Service about children at school age who have not been registered with any of the educational institutions;
• individual data of the Riga municipal limited liability company "Rīgas satiksme" about personalised e-tickets;
• information on persons who have participated in the largest household surveys.

Administrative data from the Population Register maintained by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs are used for the calculation.

The main conditions for dividing the population into family nuclei:

• One person or group of persons who does not form any of the above types is not considered a family;
• Persons living in institutional housing; are not included;
• The nucleus of the family consists of a married or cohabiting couple with or without children, as well as one parent with one or more children;
• Only direct kinship between offspring and parents is taken into account - only a grandparent with his or her grandchildren is not counted as a family nucleus in this context.
• The age of the offspring is not considered - adult men and women who are living with their parents also have the status of sons and daughters.
• According to the census methodology, several family nuclei can live in one household - for example, a grandmother with a grandfather and one of their children with their family (in this case two family nuclei are formed).

Data from the Population Register of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) and the population assessment performed by the CSB are used to determine the family nucleus. 

The CSB has developed an algorithm for determining the types of families, which uses data on Latvian permanent residents at the level of persons who provide information on kinship.

Download scheme

The nucleus of a family begins to form from the youngest person to the partner or parents.  Once the initial family nucleus has been established, the algorithm continues to evaluate the next younger person's affiliation in the dwelling with this or another family nucleus.

The algorithm is performed in 2 stages - in stage 1 the family nucleus is created according to the information found in the registers, while in stage 2 it is determined whether an unmarried adult has an unregistered cohabiting partner.

According to the algorithm, each person is classified as

• belonging to one of 6 family types or
• non-family member (one person or group of persons (there are three or more unrelated persons in the dwelling)) - these data are not published.

Cohabiting partners

Two persons who are at least 18 years old are classified as cohabiting partners if there are two persons of different sexes in the dwelling, the age difference of whom does not exceed 15 years and there are no other persons, including minors, in the dwelling.

In order to identify unregistered cohabiting couples, a number of internationally accepted conditions apply, which exclude couples with mutual kinship and cohabiting partners with a very large (unlikely) age difference.  Kinship is determined by assessing whether the persons have identical any of the parents' personal ID numbers and whether the persons have the same surnames (for example, in case of cousins).

If there are three or more unrelated persons of the same sex in the dwelling, the family nucleus is not formed and a family type is not assigned to all of these persons.

The methodology used in the calculation allows to identify couples of different sexes and same-sex cohabitation, if their place of residence is declared at one address, however, same-sex partners with children are not identified.

Place of residence

There are several reasons why family members declare their residence at different addresses.  For example:

(a) in order to place the child in the desired school, the child’s residence must be declared in the territory concerned;

(b) municipalities increase real estate tax on properties where no person’s residence is declared.  Therefore, if a family has several properties, it declares the place of residence in a 'shared’ manner;

c) municipal benefits and discounts for children that are related to the child's declared place of residence.

For these and other reasons, using only the address declared in the population register, the algorithm creates an unrealistically large share of single-parent families.  Therefore, additional adjustments are made. Other parent is added to the nucleus of a single father family and the family type is changed to a married couple with one or more children if all of the following conditions are met:

• the couple is married,
• they have at least one child together, aged 0-15.
• for a wife of a person who is a father with one or more children, one of the following conditions is fulfilled at the place of residence that she has declared:

• she does not form another family nucleus "cohabiting partner with children",
• she forms a nucleus only with her children (single mother family - type 6),
• she forms a nucleus with one or both of her parents (and their other children) (types 2, 4, 5, 6)

If the above conditions are met, it should be assessed where the family could actually live. The area of the living space is used as a criterion.  After reunification, it is considered that the family is living in the largest of the dwellings.

The family nucleus shall not be altered or supplemented if:

• according to the algorithm, the woman is already included in the family of an unregistered couple with another partner (types 3, 4),
• the youngest child is 16+ years old.

Addition to one family nucleus also changes the family types for other involved persons with whom the woman has previously been in a common nucleus, such as her children, parents, brothers, sisters.

If the family nucleus is composed of persons who have declared their residence at different addresses, data on the area of a living space and other declared persons are used to determine which of the addresses should be considered as the family residence in the statistics.

• If the persons outside this family nucleus have declared their residence in neither of these dwellings, the address of the largest dwelling is used as the family residence for statistical purposes.
• If another person has declared his or her residence in the dwelling with the largest area, then it should be assessed whether this dwelling is a private house or an apartment.
• If the largest dwelling is a private house, then this address is used in the statistics as the address of the family residence.

If the largest dwelling is an apartment, then the address of the smallest dwelling, where no one outside the family nucleus has declared his or her residence, is considered as the family residence in the statistics.

• If the persons outside this family nucleus have declared their residence in either of these dwellings, the address of the largest dwelling is used as the family residence for statistical purposes.