Executive Summary
The family is a core social institution that occupies a central place in the lives of men, women, and children around the world: It is
- a source of support, and sometimes an obstacle, to individual and collective achievements;
- a unit of economic production and consumption;
- an emotional haven that can sometimes be a source of emotional strain; and
- a vehicle for extending caregiving and culture across the generations, for better and for worse.
For its inaugural 2013 edition, The World Family Map covers family trends in 45 countries. Taken together, these countries represent every region of the world, as well as a majority of the world’s population. This inaugural edition also features an essay, "Two, One or No Parents? Children’s Living Arrangements and Educational Outcomes Around the World," which explores the links between one indicator of family structure (i.e., the number of parents in the household) and children’s educational outcomes in low-, medium-, and high-income countries.
The report’s main essay—"Two, One or No Parents? Children’s Living Arrangements and Educational Outcomes Around the World"—presents strong evidence that children living in two-parent families in middle- and high-income countries
are more likely to stay on track in school and demonstrate higher reading literacy than are children living with one or no parents. In these high- and middle-income countries, the additional financial, social, and cultural capital that two parents can provide to their children appears to give them an educational advantage over their peers from single-parent homes and those who do not live with either of their parents.
