Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statistician Fifty-eight plenary session Paris, 8-10 June 2010 Item 5 of the provisional agenda Measurement of different emerging forms of households and families Cristina Freguja Chair of Task Force on Families and Households (ISTAT – Italy)

Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statistician Paris, 9 June 2010 The established definitions of household as foundations for the new definition The Task Force does not propose any reassessment of well established definitions of traditional households and families. Reference is made as much as possible to internationally agreed definitions (i.e. CES Census Recommendations) Country and survey specific definitions on emerging forms of families and households, as well as data collection strategies in different countries and surveys have been reviewed. Common definitions and data collection approaches are proposed to improve comparability of results, but responsibility is left to individual countries for final choices, that may have to take into account national circumstances and priorities.

Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statistician Paris, 9 June 2010 Family, household and living arrangements covered in the report Chapter 1: Reconstituted families Chapter 2: Commuters between households Chapter 3: Living apart together Chapter 4: Same-sex couples Chapter 5: Living apart but within a network

Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statistician Paris, 9 June 2010 Priorities may be different in different countries The report does not discuss which of these forms should be given priority in the production of statistics. It is very difficult to define priorities at this stage, when information on the emerging forms of households and families, in terms of diffusion and social relevance, is still scarcely available. Priorities may be different in different countries, also because the prevalence of the various phenomena may vary across countries. The social fragility of specific forms, like same-sex couples and reconstituted families, may induce countries to focus on these specific typologies first, regardless of their prevalence

Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statistician Paris, 9 June 2010 Administrative data The Task Force noted that the information needed to survey emerging families and households of interest is not easily available in registers Some features on Reconstituted families and couples may be available through administrative data, if information on the timing of partnership and parenthood are collected. Similarly, if Same-sex partnership are legally recognised and registered, some measures on this arrangement may be available in registers Additional information may be required to understand the heterogeneity characterising each new definition of family and household, and to this purpose sample surveys represent a more suitable instrument.

Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statistician Paris, 9 June 2010 Proposals based on the experience The proposals are based on the consolidated experience of countries that have already faced (or are still facing) the challenge to collect information on emerging families and households. The Task Force considered the experience of countries that have already tested and implemented questions in on-going surveys as more reliable than possible pretesting of original questions on small samples. By reviewing, comparing and discussing these different experiences the Task Force has defined the information needed and outlined a questionnaire proposal to survey the families and households of interest

Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statistician Paris, 9 June 2010 Members of the Task Force:  Karine Kuyumjyan (National Stat. Service, Armenia)  Bob McColl (Australian Bureau of Statistics)  Anne Milan (Statistics Canada)  Timo Nikander (Statistics Finland)  Hannah McConnell (Statistics New Zealand)  Nico Keilman (University of Oslo, Norway)  Steve Smallwood (Office for National Statistics, UK)  Martin O’Connell (US Census Bureau)  Angela Me, Paolo Valente (UNECE)  Giampaolo Lanzieri, Gregor Kyi (Eurostat)  Mikhail Korolev (CIS-Stat) Credits