Abstract
Recent trends in household structures in European countries can be viewed as reflecting the basic demographic changes that have been summarized in the concept of the Second Demographic Transition. On the basis of a typology of leading and lagging countries in this transition process, first some basic demographic indicators relevant for family and household structures are discussed. Then, this typology is used as a structuring framework for describing recent trends in average household size, in household size distributions, and in family type distributions. Taking the example of the Netherlands, changes in household structures are then summarized by presenting changes over the 1980s in ‘top-6’ lists of life style patterns for women both at the beginning and at the end of their family formation career. The chapter concludes with expectations regarding the future course of household and family trends in Europe.
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