W. Bradford Wilcox and Laurie DeRose1
This section of the 2019 World Family Map report provides information on 16 indicators of family well-being in four areas—family structure, family socioeconomics, family process, and family culture—across 49 countries that are home to a majority of the world’s population.
The indicators for the World Family Map 2019 demonstrate the diversity of families and nations in which children are being raised. Every region of the world is home to distinct patterns of family structure, socioeconomics, family process, and culture, and there is often variation within regions. Major changes in families are taking place around the world. Marriage is becoming less common almost everywhere, while cohabitation is becoming more common in select regions. The world has made progress toward the Millennium Development Goal for reducing malnutrition; however, families continue to face stressors such as extreme poverty and parental unemployment. Parents and extended family members have limited control over some of these problems, but one avenue through which they can directly facilitate strong family relationships and positive child outcomes is parent-child communication, which takes daily efforts and participation.
This report is updated annually with new data, as available. Here we present the same indicators as we did in the 2017 report, with updated indicators for children’s living arrangements, marriage and cohabitation, fertility, and nonmarital childbearing.
FOOTNOTES:
1 Renee Ryberg and Laura H. Lippman contributed to sections of the “World Family Indicators” that have not been updated since our 2017 report.