Concepts and Methods in Family Statistics

Based on information in the Population Register, Greenland Statistics has since 1994 prepared a population statistics with persons and households as a counting unit. In 2016, the concept of families was introduced.

 

The family composition is calculated on the basis of the relationships between the residents in the same household. A family thus comprises of one or more persons in the same household, who are linked to each other through couple or family relationships. A household can include several families, but, conversely, families cannot have members from multiple households.

 

Definition and concepts

The family definition is based on households. A household consists of all persons who share an address without regard to their relations. An address may include a traditional residence or institutions such as colleges, old-age homes and orphanages. In addition to ordinary housing and institutions, some addresses are used administratively to register people without a permanent residence. For example, there may be homeless people, crew members on ships or employees at stations.

 

A family consists of one or more person who live in the same household. A family consists of singles or couples with or without children. A family in some cases includes all persons in a household, while other households are divided into several families.

 

Families can be divided into three main types:

 

Two-parent families

Singles

Non-resident children

 

For couples and singles, the family may, in addition to the couple or the single, consist of one or more children living at home (0-17 years) or young person living at home (18-24 years).

 

Children are characterized by:

Under 18 years of age

Not married

Do not have children

Not included in a cohabiting / cohabiting couple (see below)

 

Children living  at home share the same address as at least one of the legal parents. If a child does not share an address with at least one of the parents, the child is considered non-resident. Non-resident children will often be children who live with other close relatives, are in family care, live in a social institution or in a college.

 

Young people aged 18-24 who, apart from the age requirement, fulfill all the conditions for being children living at home, belongs to the parents' families as young people living at home.

 

All persons who are not children or young people living at home are adults. All adults who are not part of a couple are single.

 

There are three types of pairs (see also method and data section):

1. Married couples

Married couples are two persons who are married or living in the registered partnership.

 

2.Couple living in consensual union

A cohabiting couple are two people who, without being married to each other, have common children, regardless of the age of the children, and whether the children are still living at home.

 

3. Cohabiting couple.

Cohabiting couples consist of two persons of their own sex without common children, but possibly with children who are special children. The two people have an age difference of less than 15 years, they are, as far as the family references in the Population Register(CPR), not in close family with each other. Furthermore, it is a condition that the cohabitants are the only 2 adults at the address. People down to the age of 16 may be cohabiting.

 

Adults in all family types can have children and young people living at home. The children and young people living at home can be joint children or special children. Common children can, however, only exist in the family types of married couples and cohabiting couples.

 

A family consists of a maximum of two generations. If three generations live together, it is considered as two or more families.

 

With the family statistics, the Greenland Statistics Population Register is supplemented with a module describing family status. The module complements the existing statistics on population and households. Families can be described with information from the other demographic characteristics such as addresses, birthplace, age, parents and marital status.