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Q1. When comparing the results from Irish schools we discovered that families of 4 or more children are most common in Claremorris (65%) while approximately half of the Newry and Dublin families fall into this category. At the other end of the scale only 1% of Claremorris families have 1 child contrasting with 10.5% of Dublin families. One in 10 Danish families have 1 child only, while a relatively huge 42% of German families have an 'only' child. Almost three quarters of Haslev families have 2/3 children, this falls to 53% of Risskov families. Half of the German families include 2/3 children while just over one third of Irish families comprise this number.
Q.2. Eighty-two per cent of Irish parents surveyed were married - Claremorris being 6% higher than both Newry and Dublin. Just under two-thirds of Danish parents were married and this fell to 55% in Germany.
Q.3. Germany boasts a 90% employment rate among fathers which is approximately 10% higher than their other European counterparts. However at 71% the employment rate for mothers is approximately 10% lower than the equivalent Danish rate and about 10% higher than the Irish rate.
Q.4 When studying the age profile of parents it would appear that average Irish parents are older than their mainland European counterparts. This might lead one to conclude that either Irish people marry later or have their children at a later stage than others. However when taking into consideration family size obviously the Irish students surveyed probably have older siblings. The correlation between family size and parental age is very obvious in the German figures (question 1).
