Which European countries have the highest percentage of baby’s born to unmarried parents?

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On this map we can see the percentage of live births that were born to parents that at that time were married or in a civil partnership.

Marriage rates have been dropping, especially in Northern and Western Europe. As we can see, this also results in baby’s being born to parents that are not married or in a civil partnership. The percentage is highest in Iceland (69.4%), France (63.5%) and Portugal (60.0%). In almost all of Northern and Western Europe, the majority of live births were outside of marriage or civil partnership.

In Eastern Europe, it’s under 30% in most countries. Bulgaria is an outlier there, where it’s 59.9%, one of the highest in Europe. Turkey (2.8%), Belarus (13.0%) and North Macedonia (13.7%) have by far the lowest percentages in Europe.

These numbers don’t necessarily mean that these parents don’t ever get married. It could be that quite shortly after the birth of their child, they do get married or get a civil partnership. Not being married doesn’t have to be a bad thing, however, it does provide legal recognition and potential financial advantages for the parents and the child.

Data for this map comes from Eurostat.